AMERICAN 

ENGINEERING 
COMPETITION 


LIBRARY 

OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


AMERICAN 
ENGINEERING 
COMPETITION 


BEING  A  SERIES  OF  ARTICLES  RE- 
SULTING  FROM  AN  INVESTIGATION 
MADE  BY  "THE  TIMES"  LONDON 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
HARPER  &  BROTHERS 
PUBLISHERS  MDCCCCI 


GENERAL 


Copyright,  1901,  by  HARPKR  &  BROTHERS. 

All  fights  reserved. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PREFACE iii 

I.  INTRODUCTORY 1 

II.  IMPORTS  AND  EXPORTS 9 

III.  THE  HEAVY   IRON  AND  STEEL  TRADE 17 

IV.  STEELWORKS    .    .    .     .    .    . 24 

V.  ORE  SUPPLIES  AND  TRANSPORTS 31 

VI.  MANUFACTURE  OF  STEEL— I 39 

VII.  MANUFACTURE  OF  STEEL — II 47 

VIII.  STRUCTURAL   STEEL  WORK 57 

IX.  LOCOMOTIVES 67 

X.  STATIONARY  ENGINES 77 

XI.  MACHINE  TOOLS— I 86 

XII.  MACHINE  TOOLS— II 94 

XIII.  MALLEABLE  CASTINGS,  AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS, 

AND  MACHINE-MADE  FILES 104 

XIV.  TRANSIT  AND  COMMUNICATION    .     .    .  ' 113 

XV.  THE  LABOUR  QUESTION— 1 125 

XVI.  THE  LABOUR  QUESTION— II    . 132 


108066 


PREFACE. 

THE  first  of  the  articles  here  reprinted  appeared  in 
The  Times  during  the  spring  and  early  summer  of 
1900,  and  the  later  ones  at  the  end  of  that  year  and  the 
beginning  of  1901. 

So  many  requests  have  been  made  that  the  series 
should  be  published  separately  that  it  has  been  con- 
cluded to  issue  them  in  the  present  form.  They  are 
the  result  of  an  inquiry  made  towards  the  end  of  the 
year  1899  by  an  English  engineer  who  visited  those 
States  of  the  American  Union  in  which  the  chief  en- 
gineering centres  lie. 

The  details  set  forth,  therefore,  relate  to  a  period 
now  past;  but  so  recent  that  it  has  been  thought  un- 
necessary to  bring  the  matter  more  nearly  up  to  the 
present  date.  To  make  a  complete  revision  would 
necessitate  another  visit  to  America,  whilst  to  make 
alterations  only  in  parts  would  be  misleading;  for  in- 
stance, to  extend  the  statistical  matter  without  rewrit- 
ing the  comments  founded  upon  it  would  lead  to  con- 
fusion and  possible  error. 

Revision  is,  however,  less  needful,  as  nothing  has 
occurred  in  the  meantime  to  substantially  modify  the 
general  conclusions  to  be  drawn;  indeed,  the  course  of 
events  at  the  latter  end  of  the  past  year  (1900),  has 
been  to  confirm  the  deductions  drawn  by  the  author 
from  the  facts  chronicled. 


vi  PREFACE 

Upon  the  publication  in  The  Times  the  articles  gave 
rise  to  a  good  deal  of  comment  in  the  Press  and  else- 
where, both  in  England  and  in  America;  the  majority 
of  critics  agreeing  with  the  facts  and  the  main  conclu- 
sions drawn.  The  principal  charge  brought  against 
the  writer  has  been  that  he  took  too  favourable  a  view 
of  American  procedure,  and  adopted  too  pessimistic  a 
tone  in  speaking  of  the  resources  of  his  own  country. 

Naturally,  perhaps,  some  British  engineers  and 
metallurgists  felt  aggrieved  at  what  they  considered 
the  want  of  recognition  of  their  own  countrymen's  ac- 
tivities. One  of  the  most  prominent  was  the  veteran 
iron-master  Sir  Lowthian  Bell.  He  addressed  to  the 
editor  of  The  Times  a  long  and  vigorous  letter  of  pro- 
test, which  was  duly  published.  Sir  Lowthian,  how- 
ever, stated  that  he  had  not  visited  America  for  ten 
years  previously,  and  the  writer  of  the  articles  express- 
ly stated  that  his  conclusions  were  founded  chiefly  on 
what  had  taken  place  during  the  five  years  previous  to 
his  visit,  and  more  especially  during  the  last  three  years 
of  the  period. 

If,  however,  there  has  been  some  dissentient  criti- 
cism, agreement  has  been  expressed  by  engineers  of  all 
classes — amongst  them  some  of  those  best  able  to  judge 
— with  the  broad  conclusion  drawn  that  American  com- 
petition in  engineering  industries  is  certain  to  prove 
a  serious  menace  in  neutral  markets  hitherto  almost 
exclusively  British. 

Many  letters  to  this  effect  have  been  received.  A 
few  of  these  have  been  printed  in  The  Times,  whilst 
a  number  have  been  private  communications;  others, 
which  did  no  more  than  confirm  the  views  expressed 
and  the  facts  set  forth  in  the  articles,  though  valuable 
in  themselves,  did  not  call  for  publication. 


PREFACE  vii 

In  America  the  articles  attracted  some  attention, 
and  copious  extracts  were  made  from  them  in  technical 
and  other  papers.  Some  journals  expressed  the  opinion 
that  the  writer  took  too  favourable  a  view  of  American 
intelligence  and  enterprise.  One  journal — the  leading 
organ  of  the  iron  and  steel  trade — described  the  articles 
as  "  hysterical/'  a  term  which  has  a  very  wide  range 
of  expression  used  in  metaphor.  Probably  it  was  in- 
tended to  stand  for  "  exaggerated."  But  subsequently 
the  same  journal  in  an  editorial  article  said :  "  The 
cardinal  fact  does  remain  that  the  British  iron  indus- 
try shows  ample  evidence  of  stagnation  compared  with 
that  of  the  United  States  and  Germany.  It  may  be 
necessary  to  insert,  in  order  to  avoid  any  misunder- 
standing, that  this  applies  to  the  country  as  a  whole, 
and  that  it  describes  a  relative,  not  an  absolute,  condi- 
tion of  affairs."  The  next  paragraph  commences : 
"  Great  Britain  has  not  expanded  in  recent  years." 

Another  leading  American  technical  paper  devoted 
to  mechanical  industries,  and  justly  celebrated  for  the 
ability  with  which  it  is  conducted,  recently  said  in  a 
leading  article :  "  We  consider  the  picture  of  American 
industries  as  shown  by  The  Times  commissioner  to  be 
overdrawn."  Previously,  in  the  same  article,  it  was 
said :  "  Thus,  while  his  description  of  what  he  saw,  and 
his  deductions  therefrom,  are  no  doubt  essentially  cor- 
rect, they  do  not  represent  the  average  methods  of  the 
country  (America).  .  .  .  Certainly  we  know  there  are 
proprietors  and  managers  in  plenty  among  us  who  are 
anything  but  progressive ;  whose  fathers'  ways  are  good 
enough  for  them;  and  to  whom  a  dollar  invested  in 
plant  looks  as  big  as  a  cart-wheel." 

The  reply  to  these  criticisms  is  simple.  The  author 
expressly  states  that  "  the  object  of  the  articles  is  to 


viii  PREFACE 

point  out  circumstances  in  which  this  country  is  de- 
ficient ;  or,  at  any  rate,  from  which  we  can  learn  useful 
lessons  from  abroad."  To  carry  out  the  object  the  best 
works  were  visited,  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  average 
the  merit  of  American  engineering  establishments  at 
large,  and  deduce  a  figure  of  merit  for  comparison  with 
a  similar  aggregate  of  efficiency  relating  to  British 
works. 

If  there  are  sufficient  good  works  in  the  United 
States  to  make  competition  with  our  trade  a  serious 
matter,  the  inferior  factories  that  may  exist  can,  with 
advantage,  be  altogether  neglected. 

It  is  with  pleasure  that  advantage  is  taken  of  this 
occasion  to  express  to  many  friends  in  the  United 
States,  and  especially  to  the  proprietors  and  managers 
of  the  various  works  mentioned  in  the  articles,  very 
grateful  thanks  for  the  hospitality  shown  to  The  Times 
Special  Correspondent,  and  for  the  liberal  manner  in 
which  information  on  all  subjects  was  accorded  to  him. 
Without  this  generous  co-operation  the  preparation  of 
the  series  would  not  have  been  possible. 

LONDON,  January,  1901. 


AMERICAN     ENGINEERING 
COMPETITION. 


APIUL  19,  1900. 
I.— INTRODUCTORY. 

An  Englishman  visiting  the  United  States  at  the 
present  time  can  hardly  fail  to  be  impressed  by  his  own 
countrymen's  want  of  knowledge  of  the  growing  manufac- 
turing industries  of  America  and  the  indifference  displayed 
by  British  manufacturers  towards  the  increased  rivalry  to 
which  they  may  any  day  be  subjected  from  across  the 
Atlantic — a  rivalry  which  will  surely  come  as  soon  as  the 
present  excessive  home  demand  in  America  slackens. 

To  realize  thoroughly  the  importance  of  this  competi- 
tion it  is  necessary  to  visit  America ;  to  see  the  size  of  the 
factories,  the  completeness  of  their  plant,  the  way  in  which 
the  men  work,  unchecked  by  artificial  restraints  or  trade 
union  regulations,  the  enterprise  of  employers,  and,  lastly, 
the  natural  resources  of  the  country.  Some  guidance  may 
be  obtained,  however,  from  published  figures,  and  it  will 
be  the  object  of  these  articles  to  give  information  upon 
the  subject  of  American  engineering  competition,  both 
from  knowledge  gained  by  means  of  official  statistics,  and 
also  from  the  results  of  personal  observation.  It  will  be 
evident  that  amongst  the  figures  referred  to  those  of  chief 
interest  relate  to  the  imports  and  exports  of  the  two 
countries.  That  will  be  more  especially  the  case  in  dealing, 
as  far  as  published  figures  will  allow,  with  manufactures  which 
form  the  subject  of  these  articles,  and  which  this  country 
lias  always  looked  to  for  bringing  that  foreign  trade 
essential  to  our  existence  as  a  great  nation.  We  will, 
however,  first  glance  at  the  matter  in  the  gross. 

A 


2  AMERICAN   ENGINEERING   COMPETITION. 

In  the  two  statistical  abstracts  issued  respectively  by 
our  own  Board  of  Trade  and  by  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Statistics  we  find,  in  more  or  less  convenient  form,  the 
figures  relating  to  the  foreign  trade  of  the  two  countries. 
To  go  back  over  ten  years — the  American  fiscal  year  ends 
June  30 — the  total  exports  of  the  United  States  were,  in 
1888,  $695,954,507  (£144,990,000),  of  which  about  12 
million  dollars  were  for  foreign  goods ;  whilst  the  imports 
were  $723,957,114  (£150,791,000).  That  gives  an  excess 
of  more  than  28  million  dollars  of  imports  over  ex- 
ports. In  1898  the  American  exports  had  gone  up  to 
$1,231,482,330  (£276,546,000)  ;  whilst  the  imports  had 
fallen  to  $616,049,654  (£128,343,000).  Therefore,  instead 
of  buying  more  than  they  were  selling,  as  in  the  first- 
named  period,  the  Americans  were  selling  more  than  they 
were  buying,  and  that  to  an  enormous  extent.  Turning 
to  our  own  figures,  we  find  that  in  1888  our  total  exports 
were  £298,577,541,  of  which  about  64  millions  were 
foreign  and  colonial  goods.  This  may  be  compared  with 
£144,990,000  for  America  (dollars  being  reduced  to 
pounds  sterling),  so  that  our  exports  were  double  those  of 
the  United  States  in  1888.  Our  imports  for  the  same  year 
were  valued  at  £387,635,743,  as  against  £150,824,000  for 
American  imports.  Our  excess  of  imports  over  exports 
was,  therefore,  more  than  89  millions.  Both  countries  11 
years  ago  imported  more  than  they  exported.  By  1898 
our  exports  had  fallen  to  £294,013,988  in  value,  but  our 
imports  had  risen  to  £470,378,583 ;  so  that  the  excess  of 
imports  over  exports  had  risen  to  £176,364,595.  It  will 
be  seen,  therefore,  that  in  this  latter  year,  whilst  we, 
according  to  the  official  figures,  bought  176  millions' worth 
more  than  we  sold,  the  Americans  sold  over  128  million 
pounds'  worth  more  than  they  bought.  This  is  according 
to  official  figures  ;  but  in  1898  the  value  of  ships  built  in 
the  United  Kingdom  for  foreign  owners  was  not  recorded. 
This  was  certainly  not  fair  to  our  export  trade,  as  a  steam- 
ship sold  abroad  represents  considerable  industrial  activity. 
In  the  latest  returns  this  matter  has  been  put  on  a  more 


INTKODUCTOEY.  3 

satisfactory  basis,  and  we  find  that  for  the  11  months 
ended  November  30, 1899,  new  ships,  including  machinery, 
to  the  value  of  £8,562,922  were  sold  for  abroad. 

Sir  Kobert  Griffen,  in  his  admirable  and  most  timely 
monograph  read  before  the  Royal  Statistical  Society, 
taught  us  not  to  be  too  easily  alarmed  by  an  excess  of 
imports  over  exports,  because  we  had  to  the  good  ocean 
freights  and  the  return  on  our  invested  capital  in  rail- 
ways, public  works,  &c.,  abroad.  There  are  some  who  go 
further  and  say  that  imports  are  a  sufficient  indication  of 
industrial  success,  for  if  we  did  not  have  the  wealth  we 
could  not  spend  it,  and  the  possession  of  wealth  is  the 
measure  of  material  prosperity.  It  is  an  easy  thing  to 
push  an  argument  like  this  to  an  extreme  which  would  be 
misleading  ;  but,  in  any  case,  it  is  plain  that  for  a 
country  to  carry  on  an  export  trade  is  an  indication  that 
it  can  meet  and  beat  other  nations  in  competition.  That 
is  the  practical  point  we  have  to  deal  with  just  now. 
Moreover,  the  falling-off  in  American  imports — though  it 
may  be  caused  by  a  protective  tariff — is  evidence  of  the 
nation's  greater  ability  to  manufacture  for  its  own  needs 
and  for  the  consumer  to  pay  the  price  demanded  by  the 
producer,  always  provided  that  the  people  are  supplied 
with  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  civilization,  as  the 
Americans  undoubtedly  are,  and  that  to  a  remarkable  extent. 

It  is  perhaps  a  little  misleading  to  deal  with  crude 
statistics  in  this  wholesale  fashion.  For  instance,  to  give 
a  just  idea  of  the  bulk  of  business  done,  it  should  be 
stated  in  terms  of  the  population,  for  it  is  evident  that, 
the  greater  the  number  of  people,  the  less  must  be  their 
proportionate  share  of  the  advantages  derived  from  a 
given  volume  of  trade.  When  the  figures  are  looked  at 
in  this  way,  the  still-existing  industrial  supremacy  of 
Grreat  Britain  is  apparent.  The  American  returns  for 
1898  give  "  merchandise  imported  for  consumption  "  at 
33s.  (7*89  dollars)  per  head,  whilst  our  proportion  of 
imports  per  head  of  the  population  is  £\\  14s.  Id.  Turn- 
ing to  exports,  we  find  that  the  United  States  sent  out  of 

A— 2 


4  AMERICAN   ENGINEERING   COMPETITION. 

the  country  in  1898  domestic  merchandise  to  the  extent 
of  £3  7s.  9d.  (16-27  dollars)  per  head,  of  which  70-24  per 
cent,  was  agricultural  produce  and  24-02  per  cent,  con- 
sisted of  the  products  of  manufactures.  We  exported  per 
head  to  the  value  of  £5  16s.  2d.  for  the  same  year. 

Such  figures  as  these,  however,  valuable  as  they  are, 
tell  but  a  part  of  the  tale,  and  are  apt,  as  has  been  said, 
to  be  misleading  unless  used  with  discretion.  Those  who 
rely  wholly  on  statistics  lean  too  much  on  the  past.  They 
think  that,  when  their  tables  do  not  supply  instances, 
instances  cannot  exist.  Such  an  attitude  ignores  change 
and  the  possibility  of  change ;  it  is  as  if  Adam  had  fore- 
cast the  coming  birth-rate  upon  data  collected  before  the 
Fall.  That  is  an  attitude  the  British  mind  is  a  little  too 
apt  to  take. 

British  manufacturers  and  merchants  ought  not, 
therefore,  to  trust  overmuch  to  "  returns."  They  should 
visit  other  countries,  more  especially  America,  to  see  what 
facilities  there  are  for  production  in  this  new  land,  and 
what  sort  of  people  it  is  with  whom  they  will  have  to  cope. 
That,  however,  is  just  what  they  will  not  do.  Hardly  any 
Englishmen  go  to  the  United  States  for  observation  and 
instruction  in  the  way  that  Americans  come  to  Europe. 

Since  England  built  up  her  industrial  supremacy  a 
new  race  has  arisen.  Probably  ethnologists  do  not  give  it 
a  place  in  their  classifications,  but  for  industrial  and  eco- 
nomic purposes  it  is  a  new  race  ;  just  as  the  Anglo-Saxon 
was  a  new  race  when  it  founded  our  Empire.  We  in  Eng- 
land, who  are  proud  of  our  relationship  with  America,  are 
fond  of  speaking  of  this  new  and,  industrially,  most 
puissant  people  (who  should  really  invent  a  generic  title 
for  themselves)  as  "  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race."  This  is 
true  so  far  as  that  the  stiffening  of  the  people  comes  from 
Anglo-Saxon  ancestry.  But  the  blood  has  been  so  blended 
by  crosses  from  all  peoples  of  the  world,  and,  moreover,  the 
environment  of  the  race  during  its  infancy  and  later 
growth  has  been  so  different  from  anything  that  has 
attended  the  progress  of  any  other  nation,  that  the 


INTRODUCTORY.  £ 

character  of  the  people  is  sui  generis,  a  race  apart,  a  fact 
which  would  be  more  apparent  to  Englishmen  were  it  not 
for  the  common  tongue.  The  history  of  our  industrial 
success  in  the  past  may  interpret  much  of  the  present 
success  of  America.  Our  commercial  supremacy  has  been 
built  up  largely  by  foreign  immigration.  What  religious 
persecution  and  political  oppression  abroad  did  for  us  in 
the  past,  free  emigration  is  doing  for  America  in  this 
present  day.  It  is  producing  a  people  so  versatile,  so  far- 
seeing,  and  so  enduring  in  effort  that  the  very  forces  of  nature 
seem  to  take  more  plastic  shape  in  their  nervous  hands. 

If  we  turn  from  personnel  to  materiel,  we  find  the 
United  States  especially  favoured  by  nature  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  her  gifts.  The  keystone  of  a  general  manu- 
facturing industry  is  engineering, and  this  again  is  founded 
on  pig  iron. 

For  the  successful  making  of  pig  iron,  ore,  coal,  and 
flux  are  needed  ;  and  it  used  to  be  commonly  said  that 
the  engineering  supremacy  of  Great  Britain  would  never 
be  threatened  because  of  her  natural  advantages — iron- 
stone, coal,  and  limestone  near  together,  and  all  close  to 
the  sea.  Other  countries,  we  used  to  say,  might  have 
one  or  the  other,  but  more  or  less  widely  distributed,  and 
not  near  a  port.  In  1874  Mr,  A.  L.  Steavenson,of  Durham, 
said,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute,  when 
speaking  of  the  great  Cleveland  iron  district, "  rival  claims 
to  be  the  leader  in  producing  iron  have  been  made,  but 
we  have  seen  nothing  yet  in  any  of  these  to  cause  the 
least  anxiety."  So  far  as  knowledge  went  there  was  truth 
in  this,  but  prospectors,  inventors,  and  others  have  brought 
things  about  that  have  changed  the  situation.  Our  coal 
has  been  getting  deeper  and  more  difficult  to  win.  Much 
of  our  ore  has  been  worked  out,  or  is  found  to  be  unsuited 
for  modern  processes. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  foreign  lands  richer  ores  have 
been  found  and  worked.  The  Lake  Superior  ores  contain 
from  59  per  cent,  to  65  per  cent,  of  iron,  while  the  Grelli- 
vara  mines  of  northern  Sweden  give  a  69*51  per  cent.  ore. 


0  AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

Even  our  rich  Cumberland  and  Lancashire  hematite  ores 
have  bub  57  60  per  cent,  of  iron,  whilst  the  Cleveland 
ironstone  is  very  much  leaner.  Abroad,  again,  coal  is  being 
worked  nearer  the  surface,  and,  where  long  distances  have 
to  be  covered  to  bring  the  materials  together  at  the  blast 
furnace,  improved  engineering  practice  and  commercial 
enterprise  have  enabled  our  foreign  competitors  to  over- 
come what  seemed  formerly  insurmountable  obstacles. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  America,  as  will  hereafter  appear. 
So  far  from  our  own  coal,  ironstone,  and  flux  being 
together,  nearly  the  whole  of  the  ore  for  a  most  important 
make  of  iron — i.e.,  that  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
Bessemer  steel  or  mild  steel — is  brought  a  thousand  miles 
over  sea  from  Spain.  Thus,  in  1898,  there  were  pro- 
duced in  the  United  Kingdom  8,631,151  tons  of  pig  iron 
of  all  kinds,  and  during  the  same  year  we  imported  close 
upon  five  and  a  half  million  tons  of  ore,  chiefly  from 
Spain.  The  reason  of  this  shifting  of  our  field  of  supply 
to  a  distance  is,  of  course,  well  known.  It  is  that  the 
greater  part  of  our  native  ores  contains  too  much  phos- 
phorus for  producing  iron  suitable  for  the  manufacture 
of  Bessemer  and  Siemens  steel  by  what  is  known  as  the 
acid  process  ;  and,  as  yet,  the  acid  process  is  the  one  pre- 
ferred in  Great  Britain.  Figures  bearing  on  this  will  be 
given  later  in  these  articles.  It  is  hardly  necessary,  here, 
to  dwell  on  the  supreme  importance  of  steel  of  the  descrip- 
tions named  in  modern  engineering  construction.  Mr. 
Andrew  Carnegie  has  recently  said  that  "  the  city  of  the 
nation  that  can  produce  the  cheapest  ton  of  steel  has 
ensured  supremacy  ;  the  cost  of  so  many  other  articles 
depends  on  the  cost  of  this  prime  element."  Mr.  Carnegie 
is  himself  above  all  a  steel-maker,  but  that  does  not  make 
his  statement  less  true.  For  the  ore  from  which  this  valu- 
able material  is  made  we  in  England  are  chiefly  de- 
pendent upon  foreign  mines,  so  far  as  acid  made  steel  is 
concerned.  Tn  regard  to  the  more  modern  basic  process, 
it  will  be  sufficient  for  the  present  to  say  generally  that 
the  original  acid  process  of  steel-making  demands  a  non- 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 

phosphoric  ore,  such  as  the  Spanish  ore,  whilst,  with  a 
basic-lined  furnace,  our  native  ores,  comparatively  high  in 
phosphorus,  can  be  used.  In  spite  of  this,  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  steel  produced  in  this  country  is  made 
by  the  acid  process,  it  being  reserved  for  Germany  and 
the  United  States  to  take  the  lead  in  the  production  of  that 
British  invention,  basic  steel. 

Up  to  about  ten  years  ago  Great  Britain  had  always 
held  the  premier  position  amongst  the  iron-producing 
countries  of  the  world,  but  in  the  year  1890  the  United 
States  wrested  the  lead  from  us,  and,  except  for  two  years, 
has  held  it  ever  since.  Fifteen  years  ago  our  production 
of  iron  was  double  that  of  the  United  States.  Now,  as 
will  be  seen,  we  are  far  behind  ;  and  there  is  every  indica- 
tion that  within  five  years,  possibly  much  less,  the  blast 
furnaces  of  America  will  produce  twice  as  much  iron  as 
those  of  Great  Britain. 

The  following  table  gives  figures  taken  from  official 
sources  : — 

PRODUCTION  OF  PIG  IRON. 


Year. 

United 
Kingdom. 

United  States. 

+  or  -  U.K. 

to  U.S. 

Tons. 

Tons. 

Tons. 

1884  

7,811,727 

4,097,869 

-f  3,713,858 

1885  

7,415,469 

4,044,526 

+  3,370,943 

1886  

7,009,754 

5,683,329 

+   1,326,425 

1887  

7,559,518 

6,417,148 

+   1,142,370 

1888  

7,998,969 

6,489,738 

-f-   1,509,231 

1889  

8,322,824 

7,603,642 

-f      719,182 

1890  

7,904,214 

9,202,703          -   1,298,489 

1891   

7,406,064 

8,279,870         -      873,806 

1892  

6,709,255 

9,157,000          -  2,447,745 

1893  

6,976,990 

7,124,502       i  -      148,512 

1894  

7,427,342 

6,657,388 

-f      769,954 

1895  

7,703,459 

9,446,308 

-   1,742,849 

189G  

8,659,681 

8,623,127 

-i-        36,554 

1897  

8,796,765 

9,652,680 

856,215 

1898  

8,609,719 

11,773,934 

-  3,164,215 

1899  ..-. 

*9,  500,  000 

fl4,000,000         -  14,500,000 

*This   is   the   product   tli.it  has  been  estimated,  but,  to  judge  by  later 
advices,  it  will  probably  be  about  half  a  million  tons  too  high. 

•|  Estimated.     The  figure  is,  however,  higher  than  will  be  realized. 


8  AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

So  far  as  domestic  use  is  concerned,  the  figures  re- 
lating to  America  need  not  touch  British  ironmasters  very 
closely,  for  we  long  ago  ceased  to  look  on  the  United 
States  as  a  market  for  our  iron,  owing  to  the  protective 
tariff  which  forms  so  prominent  a  feature  of  American 
policy.  With  an  ever-growing  population  and  such  vast 
tracts  of  country  being  rapidly  developed,  the  home 
demand  for  iron  in  America  must  continue  to  be  enormous, 
and  so  long  as  production  does  not  outstrip  demand 
British  makers  may  look  on  this  growth  with  indifference, 
knowing  they  neither  gain  nor  lose.  The  case  will  be 
entirely  different,  however,  when  the  American  makers 
produce  more  iron  than  is  needed  in  their  own  country, 
and,  as  a  consequence,  have  to  seek  a  market  abroad.  To 
some  extent  this  has  already  come  about,  for  pig  iron  has 
been  sent  to  Europe,  whilst  iron  and  steel  in  their  manu- 
factured state  have  also  been  largely  exported  from  the 
United  States.  At  the  present  moment,  however,  American 
manufacturers  of  all  classes  have  more  than  they  can  do 
to  keep  pace  with  the  home  demand,  and  this  is  more 
especially  true  of  iron  and  steel  makers.  During  a  tour 
through  the  chief  manufacturing  States  of  the  Union, 
made  for  the  purpose  of  writing  these  articles,  I  found 
everywhere  the  same  tale  of  booming  prosperity,  works  of 
all  kinds  full  of  orders  for  a  year  or  more  ahead  ;  old 
works  being  enlarged  and  new  works  being  started.  Never 
anywhere  has  there  been  such  a  period  of  commercial  ex- 
pansion since  the  factory  system  was  established.  Naturally 
in  this  way  supply  and  demand  act  and  react  on  each 
other,  so  that  the  ball  may  be  kept  merrily  rolling  for  a 
long  time  yet.  But  some  day,  sooner  or  later,  the  ine- 
vitable will  come  about,  and  America  will  awake  to  the 
fact  that  she  has  more  blast  furnaces,  more  steel  mills, 
more  factories  of  all  kinds  than  the  country  demands  for 
its  existing  needs.  That  is  an  old,  old  tale  with  us  ;  for 
the  ebb  and  flow  of  trade  seem  as  inevitable  as  tides  to  an 
ocean. 


IMPORTS   AND   EXPORTS.  9 

APRIL  20,  1900. 
II.— IMPORTS  AND  EXPORTS. 

It  is  outside  the  province  of  these  articles  to  point 
out  how  detrimental  to  the  commerce  of  a  country  are 
fluctuations  in  demand  for  commodities,  more  especially 
as  there  appears  to  be  no  practical  remedy  for  the  defect. 
To  quote  from  an  admirable  address  recently  delivered  by 
Mr.  Charles  Kirchoff,  of  New  York  : — "  Demand  must 
fluctuate  within  wide  limits  so  long  as  sentiment  rules 
business,  human  follies  and  ambitions  control  public 
events,  and  the  sun  shines  or  the  rain  falls  at  times  favour- 
able or  unfavourable  to  the  growing  crops."  Fluctuation, 
however,  has  a  considerable  bearing  on  the  probability  of 
American  competition,  for,  as  soon  as  supply  overtakes 
demand  in  the  United  States,  it  is  the  fixed  determination 
of  American  manufacturers  to  attack  us  vigorously  in  the 
neutral  markets  of  the  world,  and  even  in  our  own  home 
market.  A  prominent  American  steel  maker,  the  head  of 
one  of  the  most  important  corporations  in  the  country,  re- 
cently declared  in  public  that  he  would  supply  rails  for 
abroad  at  cost  price  simply  to  retain  a  hold  on  the  market 
for  use  in  duller  times. 

In  following  out  this  policy  Americans  will  rely 
largely  on  their  protective  tariff.  It  is  their  intention, 
when  the  reaction  in  trade  comes,  or  when  supply  is  in 
excess  of  demand,  to  keep  up  values  in  America  by  stint- 
ing the  supply  to  the  home  market,  and  to  force  the  export 
trade  by  cutting  prices  for  foreign  countries.  That  is  the 
avowed  intention  of  manufacturers  with  whom  I  have  con- 
versed, and  the  system  of  combines,  trusts,  consolidations 
— or  whatever  name  may  be  given  to  these  recent  whole- 
sale amalgamations  of  factories — will  render  such  tactics 
possible.  Naturally,  a  reversal  of  the  protective  policy  of 
the  American  Government  to  free  trade  principles  would 
upset  these  schemes,  but  American  manufacturers  have 
little  fear  of  such  a  contingency,  and  even  the  compara- 
tively few  free-traders  in  the  country  express  hardly  any 


10         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

hope  of  a  change  in  this  direction,  at  any  rate  within  a 
measurable  distance  of  time.  American  producers  will, 
therefore,  possess  an  advantage  in  carrying  on  this  species 
of  industrial  warfare,  inasmuch  as  they  will  be  able  to 
attack  us  not  only  in  neutral  markets,  but  also  in  our  own, 
whilst,  owing  to  protection,  we  shall  be  unable  to  re- 
taliate by  carrying  the  war  into  their  country.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  seeking  to  do  an  extensive  foreign  trade, 
the  Americans  will  be  brought  face  to  face  with  a  new  set 
of  conditions,  and  protection  may  be  found  to  be  a  two-edged 
sword,  cutting  both  ways  in  a  quite  unexpected  manner. 
It  is  one  thing  to  carry  on  a  manufacturing  industry 
under  the  cegis  of  protection,  in  a  vast  and  ever-expanding 
country,  surrounded  by  a  fiscal  ring  fence.  It  is  quite 
another  thing  to  go  abroad  and  meet  foreign  competition 
on  equal  ground. 

These  considerations,  however,  may  easily  lead  us  too 
far  afield,  and  it  would  certainly  be  out  of  place  here  to 
dwell  on  the  arguments  for  and  against  free  trade  and 
protection — a  question  we  settled  for  ourselves  more  than 
two  generations  ago.  It  may  be  well,  however,  for  our 
present  purpose  to  state  the  elementary  contention  of  the 
American  protectionist.  He  claims  that  the  manufactur- 
ing industries  of  a  new  country  need  defence  against 
competition  to  give  them  a  fair  start  in  the  world.  An 
instance  will  best  serve  to  illustrate  the  principle.  When 
I  first  visited  the  United  States,  now  a  good  many  years 
ago,  there  was  a  heavy  duty  on  glass,  and,  amongst  other 
things,  the  windows  of  the  railway  carriages  were  very 
inferior.  This  furnished  a  text  for  the  condemnation  of 
protection.  "  It  was  unfair  to  the  general  public  to 
deprive  them  of  the  pleasure  of  looking  out  of  the  window 
in  order  that  a  few  glassmakers  might  make  money. 
Good,  clear  British  glass,  without  flaws  or  wrinkles,  could 
be  imported  at  a  lower  price  than  the  inferior  home 
product."  An  American  friend  to  whom  I  expressed  these 
views  acknowledged  their  force.  "  But,"  he  said,  "we  are 
young  ;  it  is  our  time  to  make  sacrifice.  The  extra  price 


IMPORTS   AND   EXPORTS.  11 

we  pay,  together  with  the  inconvenience  of  bad  glass,  are 
as  invested  capital  enabling  us  to  establish  a  glass  industry 
that  will  some  day  be  able  to  run  alone." 

Of  course,  the  argument  was  open  to  reply,  but  the 
fact  remains  that  the  railway  cars  now  being  built  in 
America  have  windows  clear  and  without  blemish,  as  those 
of  other  countries.  Moreover,  the  United  States  have  a 
flourishing  glass  industry.  What  American  prices  are, 
relatively  to  those  of  other  countries — whether  the 
Americans  are  still  "  investing  capital  "—I  am  not  aware; 
but  it  is  a  fact  that  there  is  an  increasing  export  trade  in 
American  glass,  amounting  during  1898  to  close  on  a 
quarter  of  a  million  sterling.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
should  be  stated  that  the  imports  of  glass  to  the  United 
States  still  exceed  the  exports  in  value,  but  they  are 
dwindling  rapidly,  the  figures  for  1898  being  less  than 
half  what  they  were  in  1893.  Very  little  of  even  such 
glass  as  is  imported  comes  from  the  United  Kingdom, 
most  from  Germany. 

In  no  other  important  industry  have  the  Americans 
made  more  rapid  strides  than  in  iron  and  steel  manufac- 
ture and  the  engineering  trades.  Figures  have  previously 
been  quoted  showing  to  what  extent  America  has  sur- 
passed the  United  Kingdom  in  bulk  of  pig  iron  produced, 
and  it  is  now  proposed  to  give  some  further  particulars  of 
the  manufacture. 

According  to  the  last  annual  report  of  Mr.  James  M. 
Swank,  the  general  manager  to  the  American  Iron  and 
Steel  Association,  the  United  States  made,  in  1898, 
11, 773, 934  gross  tons  of  pig  iron.  This  figure  has  already 
been  given.  Of  Bessemer  steel  ingots  6,609,017  tons  and 
of  open  hearth  steel  2,230,292  tons  were  produced.  There 
were  rolled  in  all  8,513,370  tons  of  finished  iron  and  steel, 
including  rails,  during  the  same  year.  It  has  also  been 
previously  shown  that  the  British  production  of  pig  iron 
was  close  on  three  million  tons  less  than  that  of  the  United 
States  during  the  year  named,  whilst  for  1899  the  returns, 
when  they  appear,  will  show  a  greater  disparity.  In 


12         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

Bessemer  steel  ingots  our  product  fell  short  of  that  of  the 
United  States  by  the  enormous  amount  of  4,849,631  tons, 
our  output  for  the  year  1898  being  only  1,759,386  tons. 
In  open  hearth  ingots  we  had  some  advantage,  our  total 
reaching  2,806,600  tons,  or  576,308  tons  in  excess  of  the 
American  production. 

The  preponderance  of  Bessemer  steel  in  America  is 
largely  explained  by  the  great  and  ever-expanding  railway 
systems  of  the  United  States.  The  chief  use  for  this  steel 
is  for  making  rails,  and,  as  about  3,000  miles  of  new  rail- 
way were  laid  during  the  year  1898  in  the  United  States, 
it  will  be  seen  that  there  was  a  considerable  tariff-pro- 
tected home  demand.  Nevertheless  the  Americans 
exported  over  six  and  three-quarter  million  dollars'  worth 
of  rails  (about  300,000  tons)  in  1898.  Our  exports  of 
rails  for  the  same  year  amounted  to  a  little  more,  476,047 
tons.  Open  hearth  steel  is  more  largely  used  for  ship- 
building and  boiler  construction,  a  fact  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  slight  balance  on  our  side  in  this  material. 
According  to  the  Journal  of  the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute, 
the  tonnage  of  new  shipping  constructed  in  the  United 
Kingdom  in  1898  was  1,610,000  tons.  In  all  other 
countries  taken  together  the  total  was  only  701,000  tons, 
or,  apart  from  British  colonies,  675,979  tons,  much  less 
than  one-half  the  product  of  the  United  Kingdom 
alone.  The  production  of  pig  iron  in  Germany,  including 
Luxembourg,  was  in  1898  7,402,717  metric  tons,  or  about 
1,200,000  tons  less  than  that  of  Great  Britain  for  the  same 
period. 

It  will  be  of  interest  to  compare  the  latest  figures 
available,  which  are  here  quoted,  with  those  of  an  earlier 
period,  and  one  is  aided  in  doing  so  by  some  admir- 
able diagrams  presented  to  the  Iron  and  Steel  Insti- 
tute by  Sir  David  Dale,  in  his  presidential  address  to  that 
society.  In  the  year  1865  we  commenced  with  a  make  of 
225,000  tons  of  steel,  the  United  States  producing  13,000 
tons.  Matters  went  on  without  very  much  change  for 
about  five  years,  but  in  1870  the  product  of  both  countries 


IMPORTS   AND  EXPORTS.  13 

took  a  sudden  rise,  which  continued  steadily  until  1878, 
when  Great  Britain  manufactured  1,117,000  tons  and 
America  743,000  tons  of  steel.  Then  we  had  a  check  for 
a  year,  so  that  our  figures  were  brought  down  almost  to 
the  American  total  ;  after  which  the  two  countries  made  a 
pretty  close  race  until  1887,  the  Americans,  however,  pass- 
ing us  for  the  first  time  in  1885.  About  this  period  the 
production  of  steel  increased  with  marvellous  rapidity,  so 
that  in  1887  America  was  turning  out  3,393,000  tons  and  we 
about  200,000  tons  less.  In  the  latter  year,  however,  the 
American  trade  received  a  severe  check,  dropping  nearly 
half  a  million  tons  by  1888,  but  we  continued  to  soar 
upwards,  so  that  in  the  latter  year  we  were  something 
approaching  a  million  tons  ahead.  Then  our  turn  came 
for  a  check,  whilst  America  recovered  to  such  an  extent  that 
in  1890  she  had  reached  a  total  of  4,346,000  tons,  or  about 
700,000  tons  beyond  our  output.  After  this  began  a  period 
of  depression  for  us,  and  we  were  soon  followed  by  America 
on  the  downward  course,  so  that  in  1893  the  totals  were 
not  rery  far  apart.  Then  commenced  the  most  wonderful 
change  in  the  history  of  the  trade,  the  United  States 
total  soaring  away — though  there  was  a  slight  check  in 
1895 — until  in  five  years  the  figures  were  increased  not 
very  far  from  threefold,  the  total  for  1898  being  over  9 
million  tons  (9,075,783  tons)  of  steel.  We  in  Great  Britain 
have  followed  America  in  this  later  spurt  of  the  industrial 
race,  but  at  a  respectful  distance,  our  total  for  1898 
being  4,639,042  tons,  according  to  Mr.  K.  E.  Kothwell's 
"  Mineral  Industries,"  Vol.  VII.,  p.  401.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that,  whilst  England  and  America  have  thus,  for 
the  last  30  years,  been  putting  forth  such  strenuous  efforts 
to  keep  up  the  supply  of  steel,  sometimes  leaping  ahead, 
at  other  times  falling  back  as  if  to  gain  energy  for  still 
greater  exertions,  Grermany,  their  nearest  rival,  has  been 
making  continuous  progress.  Thus,  in  1865  she  was  only 
second  to  ourselves  on  Sir  David  Dale's  diagram,  and  she 
held  her  position  until  1875,  when  America  passed  her  and 
took  the  second  place.  After  this  Grermany  for  long  remained 


14         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING   COMPETITION. 

third,  but,  climbing  steadily  upwards  with  hardly  a  lapse, 
in  1896  she  almost  tied  with  us.  The  next  year  she  gained 
the  second  place  by  an  excess  over  our  total  of  nearly  half 
a  million  tons,  and  in  1898  she  had  a  total  of  5,734,307 
tons,  which  was  double  her  output  five  years  previously, 
and  more  than  a  million  tons  above  our  figure  for  the  same 
year.  France  and  Eussia  are  the  only  other  countries 
whose  produce  of  steel  in  1898  ran  into  seven  figures,  the 
former  making  nearly  a  million  and  a  half  tons  and  the 
latter  just  over  a  million.  Belgium,  which  has  been  an  active 
competitor  with  us  in  some  sections  of  steel,  even  in  our 
own  market,  produced  only  653,130  tons  in  1898,  about 
48,000  tons  more  than  Austria-Hungary. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that,  whilst  we  were,  ten 
years  before  the  period  last  named,  in  the  first  place  as  a 
steel-producing  country,  both  the  United  States  and  Grer- 
many  have  beaten  us  in  this  most  important  feature  of 
manufacturing  industry. 

I  will  sum  up  this  section  of  industrial  record  by 
again  quoting  Mr.  Eothwell  :  — 

In  1898  the  United  States  made  32'8  per  cent.,  Great 
Britain  24  per  cent.,  and  Germany  20'3  per  cent,  of  all  the  pig 
iron  ;  these  three  countries  furnishing  77*1  per  cent,  of  the 
world's  supplies.  In  steel  the  United  States  reports  37'6  per 
cent.,  Germany  83*9  per  cent.,  and  Great  Britain  19'3  per  cent.; 
the  three  countries  supplying  80' 8  per  cent,  of  the  total  output. 
Of  these  three  leading  countries  Great  Britain  is  nearly  sta- 
tionary at  present,  the  increase  coining  in  larger  part  from  the 
United  States,  but  in  a  very  considerable  quantity  from 
Germany. 

Important  as  steel  undoubtedly  is  in  the  manufac- 
turing industry  of  a  nation,  it  would  naturally  be  foolish 
to  jump  at  the  conclusion  that  the  country  producing  the 
greatest  tonnage  must  be  the  most  prosperous.  We  have 
shown  that,  though  third  in  steel  production,  we  are  only 
second  to  the  United  States  in  our  output  of  pig  iron, 
whilst  in  another  mineral — and  that  which  has  often  been 
said  to  be  the  true  pulse  of  industrial  activity — we  still 
stand  first.  During  1898  we  raised,  according  to  the 


IMPORTS    AND   EXPORTS.  15 

Journal  of  the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute,  202,054,516  tons 
of  coal  in  the  United  Kingdom.  The  United  States  were 
not  very  far  behind,  producing  197,864,936  tons  during 
the  same  year  ;  whilst  Germany  took  third  place  with 
96,279,992  tons  of  coal  and  31,648,498  tons  of  lignite,  the 
calorific  value — the  true  measure  of  usefulness — of  the 
latter  being  much  lower  than  that  of  good  coal.  During 

1898  about    36J    million    tons   of  coal  were    exported 
from    the    United    Kingdom,    whilst    the    United    States 
exported    about     four     million     tons.       Our     total    for 

1899  will  considerably  exceed  that  of  1898.     According  to 
these  figures  there  were  roughly  28  million  tons  more  coal 
consumed  in  the  United  States  than  in  England  during  the 
year. 

Leaving  the  reader  to  interpret  these  figures  accord- 
ing to  his  views,  I  turn  to  the  exports  and  imports  of  the 
two  countries  under  the  heading  of  "  Iron  and  Steel,  and 
Manufactures  thereof." 

Here  we  meet  with  a  difficulty  which  is  the  bane  of 
all  inquirers  who  have  to  make  comparisons  between  the 
statistics  of  different  countries.  Under  the  above  heading 
the  American  returns  have  44  items,  whilst  our  own  Go- 
vernment tables  give  us  but  26.  This  would  not  be  of  great 
importance  if  the  additional  American  items  could  be  com- 
bined in  a  manner  that  would  make  them  harmonize  with 
the  British  classification,  but  unfortunately  the  whole 
arrangement  is  so  involved  that  no  sorting  out  of  this  kind 
is  possible. 

Taking  the  figures  in  the  gross,  however,  we  find  that 
the  United  Kingdom  exported  during  1898,  roughly,  24^ 
million  pounds'  worth  of  iron  and  steel  and  manufactures 
thereof  (including  cutlery)  ;  whilst  the  total  given  for  the 
United  States  by  the  American  Bureau  of  Statistics  is 
somewhat  over  14  J  million  pounds — if  we  turn  dollars  into 
pounds  allowing  4s.  2d.  to  the  dollar,  the  rate  adopted  in 
our  Board  of  Trade  returns,  although  it  is  not  so  much  as 
the  English  traveller  gets  for  his  money  in  the  United 
States.  The  figures  are  a  little  uncertain,  owing  to  a 


16         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

mystery  respecting  "  Hardwares."  which  probably  add 
somewhat  to  the  American  total,  so  that  our  excess  may  be 
even  greater  than  it  appears.  Taking  the  figures  as  nearly 
as  I  can  work  them  out,  I  find  that  our  exports  in  iron  and 
steel,  &c.,  exceeded  those  of  the  United  States  by 
£10,000,000. 

We  will  now  look  at  the  other  side  of  the  account  and 
consider  the  imports.  If  we  exclude  iron  ore,  we  find 
about  8J  million  pounds'  worth  of  iron  and  steel  coming 
into  the  Kingdom  during  the  year  1898.  The  United 
States,  on  the  other  hand,  imported  rather  less  than  2J 
million  pounds' worth  under  the  same  heading.  The  United 
Kingdom,  therefore,  imported  about  six  million  pounds' 
worth  more  iron  and  steel  than  the  United  States  in  1898. 
It  may  be  added  that  we,  who  formerly  thought  ourselves 
so  secure  on  our  natural  supplies,  imported  during  the 
year  1898  about  40  times  (in  value)  as  much  ore  as 
American  iron  and  steel-makers  did,  in  spite  of  our  smaller 
make  of  iron  and  steel. 

The  facts  are  significant  from  more  points  of  view 
than  one.  We  in  England  speak  of  the  United  States  as 
a  protectionist  country,  and  no  doubt  we  do  so  with  literal 
truth.  Probably,  if  there  had  been  no  protective  duties 
on  iron  and  steel,  the  American  imports  might  have  been 
higher,  and  to  some  extent  the  American  consumer  may 
thus  have  been  put  in  a  worse  position.  This  probability 
of  outside  supply,  supposing  duties  to  be  relaxed,  is 
becoming  less  and  less  every  year,  owing  to  the  advances 
made  by  American  steelmakers,  enabling  them  to  compete 
on  equal  terms  with  our  older  industries.  But  if,  instead 
of  using  the  term  "  protectionist  country  "  literally,  we 
may  do  violence  to  political  geography  and  think  of  the 
States  of  the  Union  as  separate  countries — as  economically 
they  largely  are — we  have  an  area  of  highly  civilized  ter- 
ritory with  free  trade  such  as  exists  nowhere  else  in  the 
world  ;  for  we  must  not  forget  that  British  colonies  are 
very  largely  protective,  even  against  the  mother  country. 
The  wide  expanse  of  territory  in  the  Great  North  American 


THE   HEAVF  IRON  AND   STEEL   TRADE.  17 


Republic,  the  variation  in  climate,  and  the  profusion  of 
mineral  deposits — besides  other  natural  riches — enable 
the  different  States  of  the  Union  to  draw  from  each  other 
duty  free  materials  sufficient  for  the  bulk  of  the  country's 
industries.  Doubtless  some  of  these  things  could  be 
bought  to  better  advantage  abroad  ;  but,  when  all  allow- 
ances have  been  made,  the  United  States  will  be  seen  to 
stand  on  a  different  footing,  as  a  protectionist  nation,  to 
any  other  country  possessing  an  extensive  manufacturing 
industry.  Thus,  much  of  the  ore  smelted  in  the  great 
iron-making  district  of  Pennsylvania  comes  from  mines  in 
other  States,  almost  1,000  miles  away,  but  no  duty  is  paid 
on  it,  and  the  Pitts  burg  trade  is  thus  unhampered. 


APRIL  21,  1900. 
III.— THE  HEAVY  IRON  AND   STEEL  TRADE. 

The  Americans  have  determined  to  keep  their  home 
market  for  iron  and  steel,  as  for  other  things,  in  their  own 
hands,  and  for  that  purpose  have  imposed  the  prohibitive 
duty  of  four  dollars  (16s.  6d.)  a  ton  on  foreign  pig  iron, 
7.84  dollars  (£1  12s.  3d.)  on  steel  rails,  and  13.44  dollars 
on  steel  ship  plates.  These  duties  alone  are  sufficient  to 
explain  the  falling  off  in  our  exports  of  iron  and  steel  to 
America,  although  they  can  hardly  be  made  to  account 
fully  for  the  fact  that  we,  who  not  long  ago  considered 
ourselves  the  natural  producers  of  iron  and  steel  for  the 
rest  of  the  world,  should  have  imported  into  Great  Britain 
six  million  pounds'  worth  more  iron  and  steel  during  1898 
than  the  Americans  imported.  On  further  reference  to 
the  records  of  the  trade  between  the  two  countries  for  that 
year  it  will  be  found  that  we  sent  to  the  United  States 
£1,744,535  worth  of  goods  that  might  be  included  under 
the  heading  "  iron  and  steel  manufactured  or  unmanufac- 
tured." On  the  other  hand,  the  Americans  sent  to  us 
£3,723,910  worth  of  goods  of  the  same  description. 

So  much  for  competition  in  our  home  market  ;  but  it 
will  be  interesting  to  glance  at  the  conditions  which  pre- 


18          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING   COMPETITION. 

vail  in  those  foreign  countries  that  have  been  amongst  our 
best  customers  in  the  past.  Before  doing  this,  however,  I 
will  remind  the  reader,  even  at  the  risk  of  repetition,  that 
any  competition  we  may  have  experienced  up  to  now  is  as 
nothing  compared  to  that  which  will  come  with  the 
slackening  of  home  demand  in  America.  The  very  large 
additions  to  factories  and  plant  in  that  country  during  the 
last  year  or  two  have  been  caused  by  the  phenomenal 
growth  of  its  home  demand.  When  once  that  slackens  all 
these  powerful  engines  of  industrial  warfare  will  be  turned 
on  to  markets  formerly  our  own,  and  will  be  directed  by  a 
people  more  intelligent,  and  incomparably  more  energetic, 
than  any  we  have  yet  had  to  meet  during  the  whole  period 
of  our  industrial  existence.  The  records  of  exports  from 
the  United  Kingdom  and  United  States  respectively  show 
that  the  competition  in  pig  iron  is  not  very  strong  yet  ; 
indeed,  it  is  remarkable  that  there  should  be  any  competi- 
tion at  all  for  an  article  worth,  at  the  period  under  review, 
not  much  more  than  £2  a  ton,  and  which  has  to  be  carried 
three  to  four  thousand  miles.  The  conditions  governing 
the  shipment  of  pig  iron  are,  however,  altogether  unusual, 
and  in  the  future  may  become  of  importance.  That  shipped 
from  the  United  States  is  almost  entirely  from  the 
Southern  district,  of  which  Birmingham,  Alabama,  is  the 
principal  centre.  This  town  is  some  distance  from  any 
port,  the  rates  averaging  about  Si  per  ton  to  Mobile,  on 
the  Grulf  of  Mexico,  270  miles  distant,  or  to  Pensacola,258 
miles  ;  whilst  to  New  Orleans  it  is  $1.65,  to  Brunswick,  in 
Savannah,  $1.75,  or  to  Norfolk,  in  Virginia,  $2.25,  the 
latter  being  the  nearest  port  to  the  European  market.  The 
Southern  export  trade  is,  as  was  stated  two  years  ago  by 
Mr.  Archibald  P.  Head,  "  fitful,  and  cannot  be  said  to 
have  found  its  true  level  yet." 

The  product  of  this  district  has  hitherto  been  foundry 
and  forge  iron,  but  at  the  end  of  November  last  practically 
the  first  cast  of  steel  was  made.  What  this  may  develop 
into  it  is  difficult  to  say,  but,  if  the  South  can  take  the 
same  place  in  steel  that  it  has  in  pig  iron,  then  there  will 


THE   HEAVY  IRON  AND   STEEL   TRADE.  19 

be  still  stronger  competition  for  existing  interests,  and  the 
steelmakers  of  the  United  Kingdom  will  not  escape. 

It  is  not  only  from  Alabama,  however,  that  we  may 
expect  to  find  pig  iron  in  markets  we  have  hitherto  held. 
For  instance,  the  Tonawanda  Iron  and  Steel  Company  have 
extensive  works  at  Buffalo,  where  large  quantities  of 
foundry  pig  iron  are  turned  out  for  the  general  market. 
There  are  two  furnaces,  and  they  average  about  425  tons 
a  day,  which  is  a  good  deal  above  the  British  rate  of  pro- 
duct for  foundry  iron.  The  arrangements  here  are  very 
complete  both  for  the  handling  of  material  and  for  the 
manufacture  of  the  iron.  Ore  is  brought  from  the  Lake 
Superior  mines  right  to  the  Niagara  River,  upon  which  the 
works  are  situated,  the  average  arrival  during  the  season 
being  one  ship  a  day.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  home  demand 
at  present  monopolizes  supply ;  but  a  good  deal  of  Tona- 
wanda iron  has  been  shipped  abroad,  notably  to  Australia, 
by  Messrs.  Rogers,  Brown,  and  Co.,  of  New  York,  who 
control  the  product.  Very  cheap  water  carriage  is  secured 
from  Buffalo  to  New  York  by  the  Erie  Canal  and  Hudson 
River,  the  rate  being  about  3s.  per  ton  as  compared  to 
9s.  6d.  by  rail.  In  this  way  we  have  the  noteworthy  fact 
of  ore  being  brought  from  the  head  of  Lake  Superior, 
travelling  not  very  far  from  two  thousand  miles  without 
land  carriage  before  it  gets  to  the  ocean  port,  having  been 
converted  into  pig  iron  on  the  way  by  the  Tonawanda 
furnaces,  and  being  then  carried  half  round  the  world  to 
compete  with  our  own  product  in  one  of  our  own  colonies. 
Those  interested  in  the  American  venture  are  sanguine  that 
a  large  part  of  the  iron  trade,  not  only  of  Australia  but  of 
many  other  parts  of  the  world,  can  be  secured  in  this  way, 
and  they  are  confident  that  in  normal  times  American  iron 
will  beat  the  British  product  in  price.  In  support  of  this 
they  point  out  that,  as  a  rule,  low  freight  can  be  secured 
from  American  ports  owing  to  ships  going  out  in  ballast. 
The  rate  might  be  as  low  as  10s.  per  ton,  though  the  trade 
would  stand  a  rate  of  16s,  per  ton, 

It  would  be  interesting  to  give  an  account  of  the 

i«  ^ 


20          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

Tonawanda  works,  describing  the  various  appliances  for 
handling  material,  &c.  I  propose,  however,  to  deal  with 
this  branch  of  the  subject  in  connexion  with  the  still  more 
important  iron  and  steel  works  of  the  Pittsburgh  district, 
and  do  not  wish  to  go  over  the  same  ground  twice.  It 
must  suffice  to  say  therefore  that  the  plant  is  of  the  best 
description ;  in  fact,  the  works  are  more  like  a  good 
modern  steel  plant  than  an  establishment  intended  simply 
for  the  production  of  foundry  pig. 

It  is  not  anticipated  by  Americans  generally  that  a 
large  and  constant  foreign  trade  will  be  done  in  pig  iron, 
but  rather  in  iron  and  steel  in  its  more  manufactured 
form.  Still,  the  moral  for  us  of  the  Tonawanda  furnaces 
is  none  the  less  true.  They  teach  that  it  is  only  by 
liberal  if  judicious  expenditure  of  capital  in  maintaining 
plant  in  most  efficient  condition,  and  by  studying  the 
special  needs  of  purchasers,  that  we  can  keep  our  hold  on 
any  trade.  In  spite  of  distance  and  in  spite  of  ancient 
prestige  we  shall  be  beaten  unless  some  of  us  wake  up  to 
the  fact  that  obsolete  appliances,  old,  slow  methods,  and 
the  old  carelessness  of  customers'  needs  must  give  place  to 
something  more  businesslike  and  more  intelligent. 

Our  exports  of  pig  and  puddled  iron  were  actually  less 
in  1898  than  they  were  14  years  previously,  in  1884,  the 
latter  year  representing  almost  high-water  mark  in  this 
field.  The  fact,  however,  still  remains  true  that  the 
British  exports  of  pig  iron  far  exceed  those  of  the  United 
States.  In  1898  we  sent  abroad  in  all  £2,739,093  worth 
of  pig  iron  to  all  countries,  including  British  possessions, 
whilst  the  United  States  only  exported  pig  iron  to  the 
value  of  £568,747.  It  may  be  added  for  the  sake  of  com- 
parison that  Germany  in  1897  exported  £249,500  worth 
of  pig  iron,  but  this  was  rather  a  bad  year,  the  maximum 
figure  of  £402,450  being  reached  in  1894. 

It  will  be  seen  that  we  have  still  a  long  lead  in  the 
somewhat  lean  export  trade  of  pig  iron.  It  would  be  a 
more  satisfactory  business  were  it  not  for  the  thought  that 
so  much  of  this  iron  goes  abroad  simply  to  be  made  into 


tfHE  HEAVY  IRON  AND   STEEL   TRADE.  l!l 

machinery  to  compete  with  our  own  products  of  the  same 
description.  Still  we  should  be  glad  to  do  any  trade  that 
brings  a  profit. 

Turning  from  raw  iron  to  the  manufactures  thereof  one 
finds  that  our  exports  of  iron — bar,  angle,  bolt,  and  rod — 
have  fallen  off  nearly  a  million  pounds  since  1884,  or 
almost  one  hundred  per  cent.,  a  fact  to  be  attributed  to 
some  extent  to  the  increase  in  the  use  of  steel.  Keference 
to  American  figures,  however,  shows  that  the  exports  of 
bar  iron  from  the  United  States  have  steadily  increased 
during  the  last  ten  years,  and  in  1898  were  between  three 
and  four  hundred  per  cent,  more  than  in  1889,  The  totals 
cannot  be  compared  with  the  corresponding  English  figures 
owing  to  the  difference  in  classification. 

During  the  last  ten  years  our  export  of  rails  has  fallen 
off.  In  1889  we  supplied  to  other  countries  three  and 
a-half  million  pounds'  worth,  although  this  was  a  decline 
from  the  early  eighties  when  our  total  of  rail  exports  rose 
to  over  five  million  pounds'  worth  ;  and  this  again  from 
the  figures  of  the  early  seventies,  when  we  sent  abroad 
yearly  ten  million  pounds'  worth  of"  railroad  iron,"  of 
which  probably  eight  million  pounds  were  represented  by 
rails,  for  the  different  items  were  not  separated  in  the 
statistical  accounts  of  those  early  days.  From  these  heroic 
figures  of  our  prime  we  dropped  in  the  year  1898  to  some- 
what over  two  million  pounds'  worth  of  rails  (£2,173,665), 
or  just  upon  three  million  pounds'  worth  for  railroad  iron 
of  all  sorts.  This  is  over  a  million  less  than  the  years  1866 
to  1868,  over  four  millions  less  than  the  year  1869,  over 
five  millions  less  than  1870  and  1871,  and  over  seven  mil- 
lions less  than  the  average  for  1872  to  1874.  Indeed,  the 
only  time  the  1898  total  for  railroad  iron  was  not  exceeded 
during  the  period  1866-1891  was  in  1879,  and  then  the 
difference  was  but  small.  In  1892  a  period  of  extreme  de- 
pression arose.  For  long  past  the  splendid  totals  of  the 
seventies  have  remained  unapproached. 

While   British   exports   of   rails  have  been  declining 
those   of  the   United   States   have   been  advancing  from 


-2-2      AMERICAN  ENGINEERING  COMPETITION. 

modest  beginnings,  as  became  a  young  industry,  until  now 
they  have  quite  a  respectable  importance.  Ten  years  ago 
the  shipments  of  American  rails  to  foreign  countries  were 
one-seventy-fourth  of  our  own  exports  in  value.  In  1898 
they  had  advanced  to  about  one-half.  This  gain  upon  us 
has  been  chiefly  within  the  last  four  years,  during  which 
period  the  value  of  American  rail  exports  has  increased 
sixteenfold.  But,  though  the  American  makers  have 
been  gradually  wresting  some  of  our  markets  from  us,  we 
still  hold  a  lead  in  the  trade. 

What  British  makers  should  now  ask  themselves  is, 
"  How  long  is  this  lead  likely  to  remain  ?  "  For  it  will  be 
no  good  putting  the  question  when  the  trade  has  gone. 
Having  already  given  figures  as  to  exports,  I  will  quote 
those  relating  to  total  production.  In  1898  there  were 
produced  in  all  772,035  tons  of  rails  in  the  United  King- 
dom, the  American  mills  in  the  corresponding  year  turn- 
ing out  1,981, 241  tons,  or  over  two  and  a-half  times  as 
much.  Since  1898,  even  during  the  last  few  months,  the 
facilities  for  production  in  America  have  been  very  largely 
increased,  and  yet  makers  are  at  their  wits'  end  to  execute 
orders  for  the  home  trade.  The  slackening  of  this  demand 
will  bring  the  crucial  test  between  the  rail  makers  of  the 
two  countries,  and  we  shall  see  which  is  the  fittest  to 
survive.  At  the  present  moment  we  are  going  on  very 
merrily,  with  trade  enough  for  all  at  high  prices. 

In  another  important  branch  of  the  heavy  manu- 
factured iron  trade — namely,  sheets  and  plates — we  do  not 
appear  to  be  going  back  so  much  in  regard  to  exports, 
though  our  best  years  are  of  the  past  and  do  not  seem 
likely  to  return.  Taking  together  all  sheets  and  plates, 
including  galvanized  plates  and  terne  plates,  and  adding 
to  these  hoop  iron,  so  to  harmonize  classifications,  we  have 
a  total  of  exports  of  about  six  and  a-half  millions  sterling 
for  1898.  This  does  not  compare  favourably  with  the 
totals  of  about  ten  millions  of  the  late  80's  and  early'  90' s  ; 
but  the  bulk  of  these  was  made  up  by  tinplates,  of  which 
we  still  export  large  quantities,  though  there  was  a  big 


THE   HEAVY  IEON  AND  STEEL   TRADE.  23 

drop  in  the  latter  commodities  in  1892,  due  to  the  fiscal 
arrangements  of  the  Americans,  over  which  we  have  no 
control.  It  should  be  noted  that,  whilst  in  1889  we  sent 
over  six  million  pounds'  worth  of  "  iron,  wrought  and  un- 
wrought,"  to  the  United  States,  in  1898  we  sent  only  a 
million  and  a  quarter  pounds'  worth.  On  the  other  hand, 
we  took  from  them  in  1889  about  half  a  million  pounds' 
worth  of  iron  and  steel — of  which  a  large  part  was  due  to 
sewing  machines  ;  in  1898  the  figure  had  grown  to  about 
three  and  three-quarter  million  pounds  including  two 
million  pounds'  worth  of  machinery. 

Whatever  may  be  the  explanation  of  these  figures,  or 
whatever  consolation  may  be  drawn  by  economists  from 
this  swelling  of  our  imports,  the  fact  remains  that  our 
exports  of  iron  and  steel  to  America  have  fallen,  during 
ten  years,  from  a  large  to  an  extremely  small  total,  whilst, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  United  States  are  not  only 
successfully  competing  with  us  in  foreign  markets 
but  are,  to  some  extent,  beating  us  at  home.  The 
ordinary  and  inevitable  fluctuations  in  trade — fluctuations 
which  may  not  coincide  in  two  countries,  and  which  will, 
therefore,  cause  prices  to  be  higher  in  one  than  in  the 
other  at  a  given  time — will  naturally  create  a  rise  and  fall 
in  the  exports  and  imports  of  any  two  countries  where  the 
facilities  for  production  are  at  all  equally  balanced.  An 
example  of  this  was  afforded  by  the  hanging  fire  for  a 
short  time  in  America  of  the  last  great  trade  revival,  so 
that  we  found  United  States  goods  coming  into  our 
markets  simply  because  American  manufacturers  were 
glad  to  sell  at  almost  any  price  and  not  because  commo- 
dities were  more  cheaply  made  than  we  could  make  them. 
Such  occurrences  we  might  regard  with  equanimity,  feel- 
ing confident  that  the  see-saw  of  trade  would  one  day 
equalize  matters.  The  gain  of  the  Americans  has  been, 
however,  fairly  constant. 


21         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

APRIL  24,  1900. 
IV.— STEEL    WORKS. 

There  are  many  large  steel-making  works  in  America, 
but  the  most  important  of  all — that  is  to  say,  the  most 
important  in  the  world — is  that  known  as  the  Carnegie 
Steel  Company  (Limited),  whose  different  works  are  in  or 
near  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania.  It  will  be  understood,  in 
reference  to  this,  that  the  Carnegie  Company  is  not  a 
trust  or  a  "  combine,"  but  is  a  homogeneous  business  that 
has  grown  up  under  one  management  from  small 
beginnings.  It  is  difficult  to  describe  the  gigantic  interests 
and  extensive  properties  of  this  company,  its  phenomenal 
growth  and  vast  output  of  material,  without  appearing  to 
use  words  so  extravagant  as  to  be  out  of  place  in  dealing 
with  a  business-like  subject  such  as  that  before  us. 
Perhaps  the  best  course  to  pursue  will  be  to  give  briefly 
an  account  of  the  property  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company. 

There  are  three  principal  steel  works — the  Edgar 
Thomson,  the  Duquesne,  and  the  Homestead  Steel  Works, 
all  situated  in  or  close  to  Pittsburg.  In  connexion  with 
these  are — or  were  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  for  they  have 
increased  since — 17  blast  furnaces,  the  aggregate  annual 
capacity  of  which  is  2,200,000  tons.  The  Edgar  Thomson 
Works  produce  800,000  tons  of  steel  ingots,  or  650,000 
tons  of  rails,  a  year.  The  Duquesne  Steel  Works  will 
produce  650,000  tons  of  steel  ingots  a  year,  and  the 
Homestead  Works  400,000  tons  of  Bessemer  steel  ingots 
and  1,400,000  tons  of  open  hearth  steel  ingots  a  year,  or 
1,350,000  tons  of  finished  steel.  At  the  Edgar  Thomson 
Works  there  is  also  a  foundry  which  produces  50,000  tons 
of  iron,  steel,  and  brass  castings  a  year,  this  being  the 
quantity  it  takes  to  keep  the  Carnegie  Works  going.  In 
the  Upper  Union  Steel  Mills  of  the  company  there  are 
seven  trains  of  rolls,  which  produce  structured  steel,  steel 
bars,  and  plates  to  the  extent  of  250,000  tons  a  year.  At 
the  Lower  Union  Steel  Mills  there  are  four  trains  of  rolls 
besides  hammers,  and  here  are  made  plates,  car-forgings, 


STEEL   WORKS.  1>5 

bridge  work,  angles,  &c.,  to  the  extent  of  150,000  tons  a 
year.  There  are  entirely  new  works,  known  as  the  Howard 
Axle  Works,  which  have  a  capacity  of  300  tons  per  day. 
The  company  has  also  most  extensive  coke  works,  and  a 
natural  gas  field  of  206  square  miles.  In  order  to  be 
independent  of  railway  companies  the  Carnegie  Company 
has  constructed  a  line  of  railway  for  its  own  use,  extending 
from  Lake  Erie  to  Pittsburg.  This  line  ends  at  an  exten- 
sive and  admirably  equipped  dock  and  ore-handling 
establishment  at  Conneaut  on  Lake  Erie.  The  company 
has  also  iron  mines  producing  5  J  million  tons  of  ironstone 
a  year.  These  do  not  by  any  means  exhaust  the  proper- 
ties of  the  company,  but  they  are  the  principal  ones.  How 
many  millions  of  pounds  or  dollars  they  represent  turned 
over  in  the  year  I  do  not  know,  and  probably  no  one  else 
does,  exactly.  At  any  rate  the  sum  must  be  colossal.* 

To  produce  the  vast  bulk  of  material  to  which  refer- 
ence has  been  made  needs  a  plant  the  like  of  which  exists 
nowhere  else  in  the  world.  As  has  been  said  there  are  three 
main  works,  and  each  is  bigger  in  extent  than  anything 
of  the  same  kind  we  have  in  England,  whilst  the  output  of 
the  furnaces  exceeds  that  of  our  own  by  an  enormous 
extent.  No  doubt  this  is  largely  due  to  the  superior  rich- 
ness of  the  American  ore,  a  subject  on  which  a  few  words 
will  be  said  later  on. 

Although  I  had  already  a  somewhat  extended 
acquaintance  with  the  Carnegie  Works,  I  devoted  four  days 
to  walking  through  them.  Every  one  connected  with  the 
place  was  perfectly  willing  to  give  all  the  information  one 
could  ask  for.  In  this  respect,  however,  both  British  and 
American  steel-makers  are  generous  to  a  fault.  Some- 

*  Since  this  was  written  some  interesting  particulars  of  the  operations 
of  th;s  firm  have  been  made  public  in  consequence  of  the  threatened  litiga- 
tion between  Mr.  Carnegie  and  Mr.  Frick.  It  appears  that  in  1898  the 
profits  of  the  company  were  $21,000,000,  and  in  1899  they  were  either 
$40,000,000  or  $42,000,000.  That  is  to  say,  the  firm  made  over  eight 
million  pounds  sterling  at  the  lower  estimate  last  year.  As  Mr.  Carnegie 
owns  more  than  half  the  property,  his  income  from  the  business  alone 
amounted  to  between  four  and  five  millions  sterling  last  year.  See 
Engineering,  February  23,  1900. 


26         AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

thing  of  the  largeness  of  their  operations  seems  to  enter 
into  their  characters,  and  the  stories  that  are  told  about 
rival  firms  helping  each  with  information,  often  laboriously 
gained  at  great  expense,  are  good  to  hear. 

It  is  not  proposed  to  give  separate  descriptions  of 
each  of  the  three  big  Carnegie  Works,  but  a  few  charac- 
teristic features  may  be  selected  from  each.  Four  of  the 
17  blast  furnaces  owned  by  the  company  are  at  Duquesne- 
They  are  large  furnaces,  but  would  not  strike  an  English 
ironmaster  as  being  overwhelmingly  large.  They  are,  in 
broad  principle,  much  as  other  blast  furnaces.  They  are 
100ft.  high,  22ffc.  in  diameter  in  what  is  called  the 
"  bosh  "  or  widest  part,  and  14Jft.  at  the  "  hearth  "  near 
the  bottom.  Their  capacity  is  25,000  cubic  feet.  They 
were  designed  to  produce  500  tons  of  iron  per  day,  but 
often  work  up  to  600  tons  a  day,  an  output  far  in  excess 
of  British  furnaces  ;  and  even  this  has  been  considerably 
exceeded. 

Speaking  generally  the  practice  of  American  blast- 
furnace managers  is  to  force  the  production  much  more 
than  we  do  in  Great  Britain.  That  of  course  is  facilitated 
by  the  richer  ore  ;  for  if  there  is  in  one  ore,  say,  60  per  cent, 
of  iron  and  40  per  cent,  of  gangue,  which  is  slag-making 
material  or  refuse,  it  stands  to  reason  that  the  furnace  will 
make  considerably  more  iron  in  a  given  time  than  if  60 
per  cent,  of  the  ore  is  gangue  and  40  per  cent,  only  is  iron. 
In  each  case  the  whole  mass  has  to  be  brought  to  a  molten 
state,  and  the  larger  the  percentage  of  impurity  the  more 
coke  is  burnt  for  a  given  product  of  iron.  That  accounts 
to  a  large  extent  for  the  extremely  high  product  of 
American  furnaces  as  compared  to  our  own.  Beyond  this, 
however,  the  Americans  make  a  deliberate  practice  of 
driving  their  furnaces,  as  they  expressively  put  it,  "  for  all 
they  are  worth."  In  order  to  smelt  ironstone  the  ore,  the 
coke,  and  the  limestone  used  for  flux  are  charged  into  the 
top  of  the  furnace.  The  coke  burns,  the  iron  melts  out 
from  the  ore,  and  the  waste  matter  combines  with  the 
limestone  to  form  the  product  known  as  slag.  What  is  the 


STEEL   WORKS.  27 

exact  nature  of  the  chemical  reactions  needed  to  produce 
the  conversion  is  matter  of  controversy  between  authori- 
ties ;  but  to  get  the  necessary  heat  for  these  reactions  a 
strong  blast  of  air  must  be  sent  through  the  furnace.  In 
order  to  produce  this  blast-blowing  engines  of  enormous 
power  are  used,  the  air  being  forced  in  at  the  bottom  of 
the  furnace  through  tuyeres,  or  short  iron  pipes,  which 
are  kept  from  melting  by  having  a  water  circulation.  The 
Duquesne  engines,  of  which  there  are  ten,  are  40ft.  high. 
They  have  cylinders  up  to  lOOin.  in  diameter.  Each  is 
equal  to  the  power  that  can  be  exerted  by  1,800  horses, 
and  each  will  deliver  50,000  cubic  feet  of  air  per  minute. 
The  pressure  of  the  blast  is  equal  to  151b.  to  18lb.  on  the 
square  inch,  and  it  is  raised,  by  means  of  enormous  stoves 
using  the  waste  gases  from  the  furnaces, to  a  temperature 
of  2,000  degrees  Fahr.  The  working  of  a  blast  furnace 
never  stops.  Year  after  year,  from  the  time  it  is  first  lit 
or  "  blown  in,"  there  passes  down  its  fire-brick  "  throat  " 
this  constant  stream  of  ore,  coke,  and  flux — a  thousand 
tons  a  day.  The  red-hot  breath  from  the  blowing  engine 
rushes  upwards  and  meets  the  molten  stream  without 
ceasing,  until  at  last  the  mighty  digestion  is  worn  out, 
after  gorging  perhaps  a  million  tons,  and  the  furnace  is 
blown  down  for  a  new  lining. 

The  economics  of  the  blast  furnace  depend  largely 
on  how  long  it  will  take  to  bring  a  lining  to  the  condition 
of  being  too  thin  to  work,  and  in  this  respect  the  practice  of 
British  and  American  ironmasters  differs  materially.  The 
largest  Middlesbrough  furnaces  have  a  capacity  of  36,000 
cubic  feet,  which  is,  it  will  be  seen,  considerably  above  the 
content  of  the  Duquesne  furnaces.  But  the  English 
furnaces  only  produce  950  tons  of  Cleveland  pig  iron  a 
week  per  furnace,  as  against  the  4,200  tons  a  week  of  the 
Americans  ;  although  even  this  figure,  as  already  stated, 
has  been  exceeded,  for  the  Duquesne  furnaces  are  said  to 
have  worked  up  to  700  tons  a  day  per  furnace,  or  4,900 
tons  a  week.  The  hard  driving  to  which  Americans 
resort,  as  might  be  expected,  means  a  short  life  to  the 


i\S          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

furnace.  I  did  not  hear  how  often  the  Duquesne  furnaces 
are  relined  ;  but  Mr.  Archibald  P.  Head,  an  English 
engineer  who  has  paid  considerable  attention  to  the  iron 
and  steel  practice  of  both  England  and  America,  gives 
some  figures  as  typical.  He  says  the  lining  of  an  Ameri- 
can furnace,  working,  however,  at  lower  blast  pressure 
than  the  Duquesne  furnaces,  lasts  four  years  ;  in  one  case 
the  lining  of  a  British  furnace  lasted  18  years. 

The  Americans,  however,  do  not  estimate  so  much  on 
the  time  a  furnace  lining  will  last  as  on  the  iron  it  will 
produce,  and  that  undoubtedly  is  the  more  rational  mode 
of  calculation.  "  We  hold,"  they  say,  "  that  a  lining  is 
good  for  so  much  pig,  and  the  sooner  it  makes  it  the 
better."  In  the  case  quoted  by  Mr.  Head,  however,  the 
American  four-year  furnace  only  produced  270,000  tons 
of  pig,  while  the  English  furnace  passed  out  500,000  tons 
of  iron  from  a  lean  ore.  In  spite  of  this  greater  cost  of 
lining  per  ton  of  iron  produced  of  the  American  practice 
(and  it  is  a  very  costly  business  to  line  a  furnace)  the 
ironmasters  of  the  United  States  believe  in  hard  driving. 
They  want  to  make  plenty  of  iron  to  keep  their  mills 
going,  and  look  on  it  that  a  little  loss  in  furnace  linings  is 
more  than  repaid  by  savings  in  other  respects.  The  policy 
may  be  open  to  question,  and,  as  Mr.  Head  suggests,  the 
striving  after  large  outputs  may  be  due  rather  to  rivalry 
between  furnac3  managers  than  to  considerations  of 
economy.  Still,  the  Americans  have  their  great  success 
to  point  to  as  their  justification. 

As  to  the  advantage  of  another  characteristic  feature 
of  American  blast-furnace  practice  there  can  be  little  ques- 
tion. Nothing  seemed  to  be  more  notable  at  the  Duquesne 
Works  than  their  loneliness.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  sub- 
dued hum,  characteristic  of  a  furnace  in  blast,  and  the  rush 
of  waste  water  from  the  tuyeres,  one  might  have  thought 
the  wrorks  were  shut  down.  This  is  seen,  more  or  less, 
throughout  the  United  States,  where  great  effort  is  made 
in  all  productive  industries  towards  the  replacement  of 
human  labour  by  mechanical  appliances.  From  the 


STEEL   WORKS.  29 

humblest  kitchen  to  the  mammoth  factory — from  peeling 
apples  or  washing  plates  to  heaping  tons  of  coke  and  ore 
into  a  blast  furnace — the  American  always  strives  to  do 
what  he  can  by  machinery  ;  and  the  inevitable  conse- 
quences are  that  labour  is  better  paid  and  that  there  is 
more  demand  for  it  than  in  any  other  country.  "  For 
anything  that  can  be  done  without  thinking  we  want  to 
use  a  machine,  so  that  men  can  be  set  free  to  work  the 
best  part  of  them,  their  brains."  That  is  the  position 
taken  by  the  American.  It  is  this  that  chiefly  accounts 
for  bhe  apparent  anomaly  of  high  wages  and  cheap  labour 
— that  is,  cheap  in  terms  of  the  product. 

In  the  production  of  steel  ingots,  rails,  plates,  &c., 
from  the  mine  to  the  mill  the  labour-saving  principle  has 
been  fully  carried  out.  The  mining  engineer,  the  metal- 
lurgist, the  naval  architect,  and  the  mechanical  engineer 
have  combined  to  treat  a  part  of  the  earth's  surface  as  if  it 
were  a  vast  labour-saving  machine.  Here  is  so  much  ore 
in  Minnesota  or  Wisconsin,  how  best  can  we  put  it  into 
railway  trucks  as  rails  or  plates  at  Pittsburgh,  Chicago,  or 
Cleveland  ?  It  is  just  the  same  as  if  there  were  a  bale  of 
cotton  to  turn  into  a  roll  of  calico  ;  and,  just  as  the  cotton 
manufacturer  no  longer  thinks  of  combing  by  hand, 
spinning  by  wheel,  or  of  pushing  a  shuttle  between  the 
warp  with  his  fingers,  neither  does  the  American  iron- 
master expect  his  ore  to  be  dug  up  with  spades  or  to  be 
wheeled  in  barrows  ;  nor,  in  fact,  does  he  expect  any  direct 
hand  labour  to  be  devoted  to  the  whole  process  of  manu- 
facture throughout — the  single  exception  being  the  filling 
of  the  buckets  which  take  the  ore  out  of  the  ship,  for 
which  spade  work  is  employed. 

It  has  already  been  said  that  the  Lake  Superior  ores, 
from  which  the  steel  made  in  the  United  States  is  largely 
produced,  are  much  richer  in  iron  than  the  ores  used  in  this 
country.  Not  only  is  that  the  case,  but  they  are  also 
generally  much  easier  to  win.  A  great  deal  which  lies  in 
immense  masses  on  the  slopes  of  the  hills  is  covered  only 
by  a  thin  layer  of  surface  soil  easily  removed.  Railway 


30         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

lines  are  then  laid  down,  and  there  is  brought  into  position 
a  steam  shovel,  which  is  similar  in  principle  to  our  "  steam 
navvy,"  but  is  larger  and  more  powerful.  With  these  most 
puissant  diggers  five  tons  can  be  lifted  at  a  shovelful,  so 
that  five  strokes  will  fill  a  25-ton  railway  wagon.  Mr. 
Head  states  that  he  has  seen  trucks  filled  in  this  way  at  a 
rate  of  600  tons  an  hour.  Two  men  and  four  hundredweight 
of  coal  will  do  the  work.  All  the  ore  is  not  gained  in  this  easy 
manner,  however,  even  in  the  Lake  Superior  district,  and 
there  are  a  good  many  mines,  properly  so  called,  where  the 
mineral  has  to  be  won  from  underground.  It  will  give  an 
idea  of  the  advantage  of  working  so  directly  on  the  surface 
to  state  that  the  Mesabi  ores,  which  are  those  worked  by 
the  steam  shovel,  are  put  on  the  wagons  at  lOd.  per  ton, 
including  all  costs,  whilst  with  some  other  ores  the  corre- 
sponding cost  is  4s.  2d.  per  ton.  There  is,  however, 
another  side  to  the  question.  The  Mesabi  ore  is  so 
easily  shovelled  up  because  it  is  of  a  pulverent  nature,  but 
for  the  same  reason  it  would  choke  the  blast  furnaces  were 
it  not  mixed  with  other  more  coherent  ironstone.  Writing 
before  the  present  great  rise  in  prices,  Mr.  Head  said 
that  "  but  for  the  Mesabi  competition  20s.  per  ton  at 
Pittsburgh  would  still  be  the  cost  of  Lake  Superior  Bessemer 
ores  instead  of  a  little  more  than  half  that  price." 

The  mines  are  at  varying  distances  from  Lake 
Superior.  For  instance,  the  Marquette  mines  are  15 
miles  from  Marquette  Harbour,  and  the  cost  of  transit  by 
rail  is  Is.  4d.  per  ton.  In  another  instance — that  of  the 
Grogebic  mines — the  cost  of  transport  to  the  lake  is  2s. 
per  ton.  The  Mesabi  deposit  is  75  miles  from  the  ore 
docks,  and  the  transport  by  rail  costs  3s.  4d.  per  ton. 
These  figures  are  taken  from  Mr.  Head's  paper  read  in 
February,  1899,  before  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers, 
a  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the  subject  which  those 
interested  may  study  with  advantage.  Mr.  H.  N.  Winchell, 
in  a  communication  made  to  the  Federated  Institute  of 
Mining  Engineers  two  years  ago,  stated  that  the  capital 
then  invested  in  Lake  Superior  mines  was  ^50,000,000 


ORE   SUPPLIES   AND   TRANSPORTS.  31 

sterling,  and  that  in  the  Mesabi  range  alone  there  are  in 
sight  400,000,000  tons  of  iron  ore.  The  aggregate  pro- 
duction of  ore  by  the  Lake  Superior  mines  was  12,500,000 
tons  a  year. 

APRIL  25,  1900. 
V.— OKE    SUPPLIES    AND    TKANSPOETS. 

The  ports  of  shipment  for  iron  ore  in  the  Lake  Supe- 
rior district  are  mostly  situated  near  the  head  of  the  lake. 
In  this  distant  territory  the  handling  of  ore  has  led  to  the 
erection  of  some  of  the  most  advanced  appliances  in  the 
world  for  the  transmission  of  material  in  bulk — a  circum- 
stance which  has  had  an  important  influence  on  the  iron  and 
steel  industry,  enabling  the  Americans  to  compete  more 
successfully  for  the  trade.  To  take  the  ironstone  from  up- 
land deposits  and  place  it  in  a  ship's  hold  appears  a  very 
simple  matter  ;  nevertheless,  there  are  refinements  which 
may  be  observed  that  will  make  the  difference  between 
profit  and  no  profit.  Here  the  American  mechanical  en- 
gineers and  ironmasters  have  shown  ingenuity  and  fore- 
sight. It  should  be  said,  however,  that  our  own  blast 
furnaces,  on  the  north-east  coast  of  England  or  in  South 
Wales,  are  well  served  in  this  respect.  The  ore  they  smelt 
is  largely  mined — if  the  expression  may  be  used — from  the 
open  slopes  of  the  Biscayan  mountains  on  the  romantic 
coast  of  Northern  Spain.  The  ironstone  there,  though  less 
rich  in  metal  than  that  of  America,  is  too  hard  and  com- 
pact to  be  dug  by  a  steam  shovel,  as  the  gravel-like 
deposits  of  the  Mesabi  are  dug.  Much  of  it  has,  therefore,  to 
be  blasted  away  from  the  mountain  side  ;  and  one  of  the  big 
blasts  is  a  fine  thing  to  watch,  standing  half  a  mile  or  more 
away  on  the  opposite  mountain  side.  A  bugle  call  sounds 
across  the  gorge,  and  men  can  be  seen — though  but  just 
seen,  for  they  are  stained  the  same  colour  as  the  earth — 
creeping  up  the  cliff  face  or  stumbling  across  precipitous 
•slopes  to  places  of  safety  below.  After  an  interminable 
minute  of  expectancy,  a  report  comes  through  the  thin 


32         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

mountain  air  ;  others  follow,  singly  at  first,  then  more 
frequently,  until,  amidst  one  great  roar,  a  slice  of  the 
mountain  heaves  forward  and  falls,  leaving  a  bright  red  scar 
where  it  was  severed.  Tons  upon  tons  of  broken  ore  pour 
down  the  slopes,  through  gullies,  and  over  terraces,  in 
turgid  veinous  streams,  so  red  is  the  new  ferruginous  earth 
seen  in  the  southern  sunshine.  The  digging  of  a  steam 
shovel  on  the  Mesabi  is  less  picturesque,  but  cheaper.  Still, 
it  has  a  grandeur  of  its  own,  this  plodding,  powerful 
drudge,  that  picks  up  five  tons  of  earth  at  every  stroke  it 
takes.  In  Spain  the  ore  is  broken  up  in  a  steam-driven 
ore-crusher  ;  and  after  that  it  is  filled  into  railway  wagons, 
or  is  slung  down  the  valley  slopes  on  aerial  ropeways.  The 
latter  method  has  been  carried  to  great  perfection  in  Spain. 
The  carrying-buckets,  filled  with  the  red  hematite,  slide 
along  the  steel  threads  at  incredible  speed,  until  the  ore  is 
dumped  into  ships  lying  in  the  blue  little  river  below. 

When  the  American  ore  arrives  by  railway  at  the 
lake  shipping  port  the  trucks  are  run  on  to  a  wooden 
jetty.  At  Duluth,  which  is  at  the  head  of  Lake  Superior — 
the  westernmost  point  of  the  vast  chain  of  American  inland 
seas — there  are  two  of  these  jetties,  each  2,000ft.  long  and 
having  four  pairs  of  rails  running  from  end  to  end.  Beneath 
the  decking  of  the  jetties  there  are  built  into  the  structure 
two  rows  of  ore  bins,  and  each  bin  will  hold  from  150  to 
175  tons.  They  have  sloping  bottoms,  and  there  are  sliding 
doors  in  the  sides,  which,  when  raised,  will  allow  the  ore  to 
run  down  into  swinging  spouts,  by  which  it  is  directed 
into  the  ship's  hold.  The  railway  wagons  are  fitted  with 
bottom  doors,  so  that  a  load  of  25  tons  can  be  dumped 
into  the  bins,  and  from  the  bins  to  the  ship,  with  no  more 
hand  labour  than  is  needed  for  pulling  a  bolt. 

All  this  is  very  simple — obvious,  one  might  say,  in 
its  simplicity — but,  to  get  the  best  results  in  time  and 
labour-saving,  co-operation  in  design  has  been  needed 
between  the  car  builder,  the  civil  engineer,  and  the  naval 
architect.  This  is  a  lesson  we  might  profit  by  in  England. 
The  bins  or  pockets  in  the  jetties  are  spaced  12ft.  from 


ORB   SUPPLIES   AND    TRANSPORTS.  33 

centre  to  centre,  whilst  the  ore  wagons  are  24ft.  long 
each.  The  hatchways  of  the  ships  are  also  24ft.  apart  from 
centre  to  centre.  There  is,  it  will  be  seen,  a  hatchway  of 
the  ship  corresponding  to  every  other  bin,  and  12  or  14 
spouts  will  be  lowered  when  the  contents  of  that  number 
of  bins — say,  2,000  tons  of  ore — will  be  immediately 
transferred  to  the  ship.  The  vessel  will  then  be  moved 
ahead  12ft.  so  as  to  take  the  contents  of  the  intermediate 
bins,  or  another  2,000  tons  of  ore. 

The  automatic  trimming  devices,  the  method  of 
marshalling  the  cars,  the  design  of  the  cars,  and  the  con- 
struction of  the  vessels  have  all  special  points  which  are 
the  result  of  much  thought,  ingenuity,  and  co-operation 
among  the  various  authorities  concerned.  The  simplicity 
of  the  arrangements  is  so  admirable  that  one  is  apt  to 
think  there  is  nothing  to  learn,  that  the  thing  could  not  be 
done  otherwise.  But  engineers  know  how  encumbered  by 
needless  suggestion  is  the  road  to  simplicity,  and  how 
much  that  is  redundant  has  to  be  discarded  on  the  march 
towards  what  is  obvious. 

The  Lake  Superior  mines  are  not  very  far  from  a 
thousand  miles  from  Pittsburgh,  where  the  greater  part  of 
the  ore  is  used.  From  Bilbao  to  Middlesbrough  is  about 
1,100  miles,  whilst  from  Bilbao  to  Cardiff  is  a  lesser 
distance  than  the  voyage  made  by  the  ore  ships  from 
Duluth  to  ports  on  Lake  Erie  where  the  ore  is  landed. 
From  Lake  Erie  to  Pittsburgh  is  about  150  miles.  A  few 
miles  more  or  less,  however,  do  not  make  a  great  deal  of 
difference  per  ton  of  freight  in  big  cargo  steamers  when 
once  the  material  is  in  the  ship's  hold,  so  for  the  minute 
we  will  suppose  the  ore  has  to  be  carried  the  same  distance 
in  America  as  from  Spain  to  England.  The  Americans, 
however,  labour  under  what,  with  our  system,  would  be 
the  enormous  disadvantage  of  having  to  transship  the  ore 
twice  en  route.  There  is  first  a  railway  journey,  then  a 
steamer  voyage,  and  then  another  railway  journey.  One 
might  think,  under  such  conditions,  that  it  would  be  hope- 
less for  the  Americans  to  try  to  compete  with  us,  who  have 


3i         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

one  simple  ocean  voyage.  It  is  these  facts  which  make 
their  ore  handling  appliances  so  interesting  to  us,  for  by 
them  chiefly  they  have  overcome  the  obstacles  of  distance 
and  a  broken  journey.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however, 
that  the  American  ore  is  richer  than  that  of  Spain,  the 
respective  percentages  of  iron  averaging  roughly  as  60 
to  55* 

The  vessels  which  make  the  voyage  on  the  lakes  are 
built  to  carry  about  6,000  tons  of  ore,  although  limited  in 
draught  to  a  little  over  16  feet.  Some  of  them  are  nearly 
500  feet  long.  It  is  a  surprise  to  a  good  many  to  find  such 
big,  powerful  craft  used  solely  for  navigating  fresh  water. 
They  are  as  large  as  some  ocean  liners,  but  are  not  hand- 
some, even  when  compared  to  the  average  "  ocean  tramp." 
"  Whalebacks  "  are  largely  used,  but  this  uncouth  type  of 
vessel  does  not  appear  to  be  so  popular  as  it  was  a  few  years 
back.  Having  traversed  400  miles  on  the  often  stormy 
waters  of  Lake  Superior — which  is  the  biggest  fresh  water 
lake  in  the  world,  being  a  little  larger  than  the  Victoria 
Nyanza — the  ore  ship  enters  the  Sault  Sainte  Marie  Canal 
to  be  transported  to  Lake  Huron.  There  are  three  locks 
here  ;  the  Canadian  Lock,  900ft.  long  by  60ft.  wide,  is  said 
to  be  the  largest  in  the  world.  Vessels  drawing  as  much  as 
18ft.  have  passed  through.  The  machinery  for  opening  and 
closing  the  lock  gates  is  worked  by  electricity,  the  current 
being  generated  by  turbines.  This  lock  was  completed 
five  years  ago  and  cost  about  three-quarters  of  a  million 
sterling.  The  traffic  through  the  Sault  (pronounced  "  Soo  ") 
Locks  is  very  large.  In  the  winter  navigation  is  stopped 
by  ice,  but  during  the  241  days  on  which  the  canal  was 
open  in  1898  no  less  than  21,234,664  tons  of  cargo  passed 
through.  This  was  carried  by  17,161  vessels — or  rather 
there  were  that  number  of  passages  made,  for  many  ships 
must  have  passed  more  than  once.  Of  the  total  quantity 
of  goods,  about  two-thirds  was  iron  ore.  The  business 
done  by  the  Sault  Sainte  Marie  has  often  been  compared 
to  that  of  the  Suez  Canal,  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter. 
In  the  same  year,  1898,  3,503  vessels  passed  through  the 


OKE    SUPPLIES   AND   TRANSPORTS.  33 

Suez  Canal,  the  tonnage  being  9,238,603,  of  which  68  per 
cent,  was  British.  According  to  this,  the  American  canal 
had  an  enormous  advantage  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  Suez  Canal  records  deal  with  net  tonnage,  which 
is  a  very  different  thing  from  the  tonnage  a  ship  will  carry, 
there  being  all  manner  of  arbitrary  allowances  to  reduce 
the  former.  In  any  case,  however,  the  traffic  through  the 
"  Soo  "  is  enormous,  though  chiefly  of  low  value  material. 

The  difference  in  level  between  Lakes  Superior  and 
Huron  appears  to  be  about  25ft— it  is  variously  given — 
and  the  natural  stream  connecting  the  two  is  of  the  nature 
of  a  rapid.  Fifty  years  ago  the  navigation  of  the  lakes 
was  made  continuous  by  the  opening  of  the  canal ;  pre-^ 
viously  to  that  any  vessels  ascending  were  drawn  up  an 
incline,  large  schooners  up  to  80  tons,  and  even  steamers* 
being  served  in  this  way.  The  history  of  the  progress  of 
navigation  on  the  great  lakes  is  a  remarkable  record,  and 
well  worth  separate  notice,  for  it  contains  the  seed  of  what 
may  prove  to  be  the  greatest  rivalry  to  our  shipping 
supremacy  that  we  have  yet  experienced. 

Having  traversed  Lake  Huron,  vessels  pass  by  the  St. 
Clair  Canal  into  Lake  Erie,  on  the  southern  shore  of  which 
are  situated  the  receiving  ports  for  the  Pennsylvania  and 
Ohio  iron  districts.  The  chief  in  importance  of  these  is 
Cleveland  ;  near  to  which  is  Lorain,  situated  on  a  river 
which  would  not  be  large  even  for  England,  but  is  accounted 
no  more  than  a  creek  in  America.  Small  as  it  is,  however, 
by  means  of  dredging  it  has  been  made  just  big  enough 
for  the  big  ore  steamers  to  get  up  to  where  the  Federal  Steel 
Company  have  an  extensive  and  well-equipped  works,  one 
of  a  number  possessed  by  this  powerful  corporation.  Here 
a  semi-circular  basin  has  been  scooped  out  of  the  opposite 
bank  in  order  to  give  room  for  the  ships  to  swing. 

The  Federal  Steel  Company  is  one  of  those  gigantic 
combinations  with  which  Americans  have  lately  been 
astonishing  the  industrial  world.  It  was  incorporated  in 
September,  1898,  and  consolidates  the  Illinois  Steel  Com- 
pany, the  Minnesota  Iron  Company,  the  Duluth  and  Iron 


36         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

Bange  Kail  road,  the  Elgin  Joliet  and  Eastern  Kailroad, 
the  Lorain  Steel  Company,  and  Johnson  and  Company,  of 
Pennsylvania,  each  one  of  these  in  itself  being  a  large 
business.  As  it  owns  a  "  practically  inexhaustible  supply 
of  the  best  ore  in  the  United  States,"  a  railroad  connect- 
ing its  mines  with  Lake  Superior,  five  docks  having  a 
storage  capacity  of  138,756  tons,  and  a  large  number  of 
steamers,  barges,  &c.,  for  transporting  ore,  it  is  entirely 
self-contained  ;  there  are  no  supplies  of  raw  material  from 
outside  to  sap  its  profits.  Therefore  the  whole  increment 
of  gain  since  the  incorporation  of  the  company  should  go 
to  swell  the  credit  side  of  its  balance  sheet,  after  allowing 
a  comparatively  small  sum  for  possible  advance  in  labour. 
What  this  profit  means  may  be  gathered  from  a  statement 
of  prices  that  ruled  shortly  after  the  consolidation  com- 
pared with  those  of  a  twelvemonth  later.  The  quotations 
are  given  in  the  New  York  Iron  Age,  which  is  the  recog- 
nized authority  in  these  matters.  In  November,  1898, 
No.  2  Foundry  pig  iron  was  worth  $  1 1  per  ton  in  Chicago  ; 
exactly  a  year  later  it  was  worth  $23J.  At  the  former 
period  Bessemer  pig  was  worth  $10*40,  a  year  later  it  was 
$24-90.  Steel  rails  were  worth  $17  a  ton  in  1898,  and 
$35  in  1899.  Manufactured  steel,  such  as  angle  bars, 
plates,  beams,  &c.,  and  also  various  other  products  of  the 
company  have  risen  during  the  same  period  in  almost,  if 
not  quite,  the  same  ratio.  The  Chicago  works  alone  of  the 
corporation  can  turn  out  from  their  17  blast  furnaces  con- 
siderably over  a  million  and  a  half  tons  of  pig  iron  a  year ; 
and  this  is  converted  into  Bessemer  or  open-hearth  steel, 
either  as  rails,  bars,  plates,  &c.  As  the  demand  for  steel 
has  been  at  full  stretch  ever  since  the  consolidation  was 
made,  stockholders  may  expect  to  receive  a  good  dividend 
even  on  the  $200,000,000,  or  roughly  40  millions  ster- 
ling, which  is  the  gigantic  capital  of  the  company. 

The  ore  landing  plant  at  Lorain,  where  there  are  two 
large  blast  furnaces,  is  one  of  the  best  equipped  in  the 
country.  It  consists  of  eight  Brown  conveyers,  which 
take  the  ore  from  the  vessel's  hold  and  deposit  it  in  what 


ORE   SUPPLIES   AND   TRANSPORTS.  37 

is  called  the  stock-yard.  These  stock-yards  are  an  essen- 
tial feature  of  steel  works  depending  on  a  lake-borne  ore, 
because  supplies  are  cut  off  throughout  the  winter  months 
by  the  closing  of  ports  by  ice.  In  average  years,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  winter  season,  there  may  be 
8,000,000  to  10,000,000  tons  of  ore  laid  by,  but  last  year 
stocks  did  not  appear  to  me  to  have  accumulated  to  any- 
thing like  this  in  most  of  the  yards.  If  this  were  a  fact 
it  bore  testimony  to  the  then  enormous  demand  for  steel, 
as  every  available  steamer  had  been  hard  at  work  from  the 
earliest  day  of  the  season.  A  mild  November  doubtless 
helped  to  replenish  the  stocks  later  on. 

It  is  difficult  to  give  an  idea  of  the  Brown  conveyer 
without  the  aid  of  drawings.  It  is  a  wonderful  device, 
and  consists  essentially  of  an  enormous  travelling  bridge 
of  steel,  stretching  over  a  width  of  about  400ft.  The  piers 
of  this  bridge,  also  of  steel,  are  mounted  on  wheels,  so  that 
the  whole  structure  can  be  traversed  sideways  on  heavy 
rails  laid  for  the  purpose.  The  bridge  itself  forms  a  rail- 
way, on  which  runs  a  trolly  containing  a  pulley,  over 
which,  in  turn,  runs  the  steel  wire  rope  for  lifting  the  ore 
buckets.  The  maximum  height  of  the  bridge  to  the 
underside  above  ground  level  is  60ft.  or  more.  The 
traversing,  raising,  and  lowering  and  tipping  of  the  ore 
bucket  are  all  controlled  from  the  cabin  where  the 
mechanism  is  placed,  the  details  being  worked  out  in  a 
very  ingenious  manner. 

These  bridges  are  generally  used  in  groups,  there 
being  eight  in  a  group  at  Lorain.  The  speed  at  which  the 
trolly  is  traversed  on  the  bridge  and  at  which  the  bucket, 
holding  locwt.  or  so  of  ore,  is  raised  and  lowered  is  very 
great.  Mr.  Head  gives  particulars  of  12  hatchways  of  one 
ship  being  worked  by  12  bridges  when  6,000  tons  were 
taken  out  and  deposited  in  12  hours.  This  would  be  nearly 
eight  tons  per  man  per  hour,  there  being  eight  men  filling 
the  buckets  per  bridge.  The  same  authority  gives  the 
cost  of  unloading  and  putting  on  the  stock  heaps  at 
between  £d.  and  ^d.  per  ton.  At  the  Illinois  Steel 


38         AMERICAN   ENGINEERINC4    COMPETITION. 

Company's  works,  South  Chicago,  there  is  a  magnificent 
unloading  plant,  consisting  of  1 9  Brown  conveyers  ;  and  I 
was  there  informed  that  the  quickest  record  they  had  made 
was  60  tons  per  hour  for  each  machine.  This  would  be 
at  the  rate  of  8,640  tons  for  12  machines  working  12  hours, 
and  I  was  informed  that  7,000  tons  were  generally  unloaded 
in  11  to  12  hours.  A  vessel  would  be  filled  in  about  four 
hours,  but  the  work  had  been  performed  in  two  hours. 

The  ore  as  taken  from  the  steamer  either  can  be 
dumped  on  to  the  stock  piles  or  can  be  shot  at  once  into 
the  railway  wagons  for  transport  to  a  distance.  The  Car- 
negie Steel  Company  have  their  own  port  on  Lake  Erie  at 
Conneaut,  about  135  miles  from  their  blast  furnaces  at 
Pittsburgh.  In  order  to  complete  the  chain  of  control  from 
the  mines  to  the  works  they  have  established  a  railway  of 
their  own,  exclusively  for  mineral  traffic.  This  line  is 
admirably  equipped  with  very  powerful  locomotives,  some 
weighing  with  tenders  as  much  as  130  tons,  and  with 
steel  wagons,  each  carrying  45  to  50  tons  of  iron- 
stone, expressly  suited  for  the  traffic.  The  absence  of 
passenger  service  much  simplifies  the  working  of  the  line, 
and  the  cost  of  carrying  ore  is  stated  to  be  from  one-sixth 
to  one-seventh  of  a  penny  per  ton-mile.  The  trains  con- 
sist of  from  25  to  30  loaded  cars.  The  weight  of  the 
steel  wagons  carrying  this  large  burden  of  45  tons 
is  no  more  than  15  tons,  a  ratio  of  tare  unappr cached,  so 
far  as  I  am  aware,  in  British  practice. 

It  will  be  seen  by  those  acquainted  with  the  mineral  in- 
dustries of  Europe  that  the  methods  of  handling  material 
adopted  in  the  United  States  differ  essentially  from  those 
in  vogue  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  To  a  large  extent 
the  Americans  have  been  forced  by  circumstances  into 
new  departures  and  improved  methods,  by  geographical 
considerations  and  the  exigencies  of  their  position.  None 
the  less  credit  is  due  to  them  ;  and  it  is  credit  that  no 
fair-minded  Englishman  will  withhold.  The  ingenuity 
they  have  displayed  and  the  courage  they  have  shown 
in  tackling  difficulties  during  the  uphill  fight  in  putting 


MANUFACTURE   OF   STEEL.  39 

their  steel  industry  on  a  footing  to  compete  with  our  own 
in  neutral  markets  is  worthy  of  all  praise  and  admiration. 


APIUL  26,  1900. 
VI.— MANUFACTURE  OF  STEEL.— I. 

The  coke-making  region  for  the  Pittsburgh  district  is  at 
Conn  ells  ville.  This  gives  about  a  50-mile  haul,  so  that 
the  Americans  have  no  advantage  over  many  of  our  blast 
furnaces  in  regard  to  geographical  position,  but  rather  the 
reverse.  The  coke  is  said  to  be  as  good  as  our  best  blast 
furnace  coke,  and  is  certainly  a  strong  fuel  suited  to 
bear  the  heavy  burden  of  the  American  furnaces,  though 
it  has,  perhaps,  hardly  the  beautiful  silky  appearance  of 
our  own  best  Durham  coke. 

When  the  materials  for  the  blast  furnace  have  arrived 
at  the  works  there  is  as  great  a  difference  in  the  method 
of  handling,  compared  with  English  practice,  as  there  was 
in  transport.  At  the  Duquesne  Works  of  the  Carnegie 
Company  there  are,  as  already  stated,  four  furnaces,  each 
producing  the  enormous  output  of  600  tons  of  iron  per 
day  of  24  hours  ;  indeed,  they  have  been  worked  consider- 
ably higher,  even  up  to  700  tons.  These  furnaces  are 
placed  in  line  and  are  flanked  by  the  big  stoves  for  heating 
the  blast,  the  latter  even  forming  a  more  conspicuous 
feature  than  the  furnaces. 

The  system  of  ore  handling  followed  may  be  described 
as  a  combination  of  the  shipping  arrangements  at  Duluth 
and  the  landing  arrangements  at  Lorain,  both  of  which 
have  been  described.  At  the  front  of  the  furnaces  is  a 
large  stockyard  where  the  heaps  of  ore  are  piled.  Between 
the  furnaces  and  the  stockyard  are  two  parallel  trestles  or 
railway  viaducts,  the  upper  parts  of  which  are  divided  up  into 
lockers  or  bins  in  the  same  way  as  the  jetties  at  Duluth. 
The  viaduct  nearer  the  furnaces  is  used  for  coke  and  lime- 
stone ;  that  further  away  forms  the  iron  ore  store  for 
immediate  use.  There  are  62  ore  bins,  each  holding  150 
tons.  The  mineral  trains  are  drawn  on  to  the  viaducts 


40         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

and  deposit  their  load  into  the  lockers  or  bins  beneath. 
From  the  bins  the  ore,  coke,  and  limestone  are  allowed  to 
fall  into  buckets  carried  on  trucks  on  lines  laid  on  the 
ground  level,  and  in  this  way  they  are  conveyed  to  a  steep 
inclined  frame  or  trolly  way,  which  is  an  openwork  steel 
structure  and  extends  from  the  ground  to  above  the  top  of 
the  blast  furnace.  From  the  trolly  that  runs  up  and 
down  this  inclined  way  is  suspended  the  bucket  carrying 
the  materials  for  the  blast  furnace.  The  trolly  and  bucket 
being  drawn  up  by  a  wire  rope,  actuated  by  a  hoisting 
engine,  the  whole  is  lifted  up  until  the  bucket  is  sus- 
pended above  the  top  of  the  furnace.  The  bottom  of  the 
bucket  is  then  made  to  open,  and  the  contents  fall  into  a 
large  receiver,  whence  they  are  allowed  to  drop  into  the 
furnace  when  a  sufficient  charge  has  accumulated.  There 
is  a  compressed  air  engine  on  the  top  of  the  furnace  for 
working  the  "  bell  "  which  closes  the  mouth  of  the 
furnace. 

These  operations  are  carried  out  wholly  by  mechanical 
means,  the  blast  furnace  materials  not  being  "  handled," 
in  the  proper  acceptation  of  the  term,  from  first  to  last. 
Thus  they  fall  through  the  bottoms  of  the  receiving  wagons 
into  the  bins,  and  from  the  bins  into  the  buckets.  The 
buckets  are  then  drawn  by  locomotives  to  the  inclined 
trolly  ways,  a  hook  on  the  trolly  seizes  the  bucket  and 
conveys  it  to  a  point  above  the  top  of  the  furnace,  the 
charge  of  the  bucket  falls  into  the  receiver,  and,  lastly, 
the  receiver  opens  to  put  the  charge  into  the  furnace — all 
by  mechanical  means.  There  are  absolutely  no  men  on 
the  top  of  the  furnace,  and  no  crowd  of  labourers  below. 
The  whole  of  the  operations  of  hoisting  and  charging  are 
performed  by  one  man  who  sits  in  the  cabin  where  the 
hoisting  engine  is,  100ft.  away.  How  different  all  this  is 
to  the  older  system  of  platform  hoists  and  hand  barrows, 
with  the  attendant  jostling  crowd,  need  hardly  be  pointed 
out.  Naturally  the  new  plan  entails  large  initial  outlay, 
but  the  American  blast  furnace  manager  founds  his 
practice  on  the  view  that  capital  is  cheap  but  labour  is 


MANUFACTURE   OF    STEEL.  41 

dear  ;  and  he  never  hesitates  to  debit  his  working  expenses 
a  hundred  dollars  for  additional  capital  if  he  can  credit  a 
hundred  and  ten  or  twenty  or  fifty,  or  two  hundred  may 
be,  in  labour  saved  ;  and  he  allows  no  trade  union  to  say 
him  nay. 

The  procedure  here  described  is  that  followed  when 
working  the  furnaces  with  material  directly  as  it  comes  in. 
But,  in  order  to  provide  ore  to  keep  the  furnaces  in  blast 
when  the  lakes  are  frozen,  the  stockyard  is  provided.  To 
distribute  the  ore  over  the  wide  area  of  the  yard,  and  also 
to  take  it  to  the  blast  furnace,  there  are  at  Duquesne  four 
conveyers  or  Brown  bridge  travelling  cranes,  which  stretch 
over  the  stockyard  and  command  every  part.  They  have 
a  span  between  uprights  of  240ft.,  and  the  overhang  is 
30ft.  The  bridge  is  supported  at  the  back  by  a  steel 
structure  which  contains  the  engine-house  where  the 
motive  machinery  is  placed.  This,  like  the  front  supports, 
runs  on  rails,  so  that  the  whole — bridge,  piers,  and  engine- 
house — may  be  traversed  longitudinally.  As  the  trolly 
with  the  bucket  attached  runs  transversely  on  the  bridge, 
the  whole  of  the  big  stockyard  is  commanded  by  the  four 
bridges.  The  enormous  stocks  of  ore  that  accumulate  at 
the  beginning  of  the  winter  season  are  quite  geographical 
in  appearance,  being  piled  up  like  a  miniature  mountain 
range,  with  sharp  peaks  and  deep  valleys  in  most  pic- 
turesque formation.  When  it  is  desired  to  transfer  the 
ore  to  the  furnaces,  again  no  human  intervention  is  needed, 
beyond  that  of  the  man  in  the  cabin,  who  actuates  the 
electrical  motive  machinery.  The  skip  or  bucket  is 
lowered  on  to  the  side  of  the  pile  and  scrapes  itself  full 
automatically.  It  is  then  raised  to  the  needed  height  and 
swung  along,  in  mid  air,  beneath  the  bridge  to  the 
position  required,  so  that  the  ore  can  be  transferred  to  the 
bogies  and  taken  to  the  furnace  top  in  the  manner  already 
described. 

To  follow  the  various  processes  of  manufacture  of 
steel  as  pursued  in  America  would  be  both  interesting  and 
instructive,  but  would  need  a  treatise  rather  than  an  article. 


42         AMERICAN   ENGINEERINGS    COMPETITION. 

Although  it  is  quite  impossible  to  deal  with  these  matters 
in  detail,  a  few  notes  may  be  added  on  points  that  seem 
more  particularly  remarkable. 

In  dealing  with  the  blast  furnace  itself  there  are  two 
features  to  which  reference  may  .be  made,  though  they 
are  not  altogether  new.  The  first  is  the  steam  gun,  and 
the  second  the  pig  casting  machine.  The  former  is  used 
for  stopping  the  tapping  hole  of  the  furnace.  It  will  be 
understood  that,  as  the  metallic  iron  is  smelted  or  sepa- 
rated from  the  gangue,  or  dross,  of  the  ore,  the  molten 
metal  drips  down  and  collects  in  a  mass  on  the  bottom  of 
the  furnace.  There  is  a  hole  known  as  the  tapping  hole  ; 
and  this  is  stopped  with  clay,  which  has  to  be  rammed  in 
very  hard  to  keep  the  heavy  pool  of  liquid  metal  confined. 
When  the  furnace  is  tapped  the  clay  is  broken  out  by 
crowbars  and  picks,  very  trying  and  arduous  labour.  The 
Americans,  with  their  traditional  dislike  to  heavy  work, 
have  devised  a  steam  gun  for  the  purpose.  It  is  a  simple 
apparatus  consisting  of  a  single-acting  steam  cylinder 
.having  a  piston  with  a  rammer  attached.  In  front  is 
another  cylinder  into  which  large  balls  of  clay  are  placed. 
The  apparatus  being  brought  to  position  and  steam 
turned  on,  the  gun  will  fill  the  tapping  hole  in  two  or 
three  minutes  more  effectually  than  could  be  done  by 
hand  in  half  an  hour.  The  "  clay  gun  "  is  looked  on  as 
so  essential  at  Duquesne  that  it  is  doubted  whether  the 
heavy  burdens,  frequent  tappings,  and  high  blast  pressure 
there  in  vogue  could  well  be  maintained  without  its  use. 
It  takes  two  men  to  work  this  gun. 

The  product  of  the  four  blast  furnaces  at  Duquesne 
is  partly  used  in  the  Duquesne  Mills  and  partly  at  the 
Homestead  Works,  four  miles  away.  In  the  latter  case 
the  molten  metal  is  run  from  the  furnaces  into  bogie 
trucks  carrying  ladles  holding  16  or  17  tons  of  white  hot 
metal.  About  seven  are  generally  coupled  up  to  the 
locomotive  ;  and  it  is  well  to  stand  clear  of  the  train  as  it 
jolts  over  points  and  crossings  if  the  ladles  happen  to  be 
extra  full,  for  a  slop  over  of  liquid  iron  is  not  a  pleasant 


MANUFACTURE   OF   STEEL.  43 

thing  to  encounter.  A  loaded  train  of  ladles  or  of  slag 
bogies  is  an  interesting  and,  to  a  stranger,  a  rather 
startling  sight.  Of  course  it  is  common  in  the  iron  and 
steel  districts  of  Great  Britain  where  "  direct  metal  "  has 
been  used  for  years  past. 

In  explanation  of  the  term  "  direct  metal,"  it  may  be 
said  that  the  original  method  of  operating  a  Bessemer 
converter  was  to  take  pig  iron  and  melt  it  in  a  cupola,  the 
molten  metal  being  then  transferred  to  the  converters  and 
"  blown  "  according  to  the  method  introduced  by  the  late 
Sir  Henry  Bessemer.  This  necessitated  an  extra  expendi- 
ture of  fuel,  and  naturally  it  was  soon  perceived  that  it 
would  be  cheaper  not  to  let  the  iron  get  cold,  but  to  use  it 
at  once  direct  from  the  blast  furnace.  The  smaller  scale 
on  which  operations  were  formerly  carried  on,  and  various 
difficulties,  real,  imaginary,  or  exaggerated,  prevented  this 
plan  being  followed  for  some  time  ;  but  the  perfection  of 
mechanical  appliances  in  the  steel  works  has  enabled  the 
system  to  be  carried  out  with  advantage.  The  danger  of 
the  mass  of  iron  cooling  in  the  ladle  sufficiently  to  pre- 
vent it  pouring  out  was  at  one  time  thought  formidable, 
but  such  a  contingency  is  really  very  remote.  I  remember 
a  case  in  South  Wales  of  the  locomotive  getting  off  the 
lines.  After  considerable  delay  it  was  put  back  and  drew 
the  bogies  to  the  converter-house,  at  the  other  end  of  a 
long  valley,  where  the  metal  was  duly  made  into  steel. 
The  Carnegie  Company  were,  at  the  time  of  my  visit  to 
Homestead,  about  to  build  blast  furnaces  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  Monongahela  Kiver  to  supply  the  works  with 
molten  iron  for  steel  making.  The  river  here  is  about  as 
wide  as  the  Thames  at  London-bridge,  and  the  company  will 
build  a  special  railway  bridge  to  carry  the  molten  metal 
across.  These  new  furnaces  will  have  a  bigger  output  than 
even  the  Duquesne  furnaces,  being  rated  at  700  tons  a  day. 
This  will,  no  doubt,  be  largely  exceeded  at  times,  if  we  may 
judge  by  past  experience,  so  that  each  furnace  will  probably 
produce  in  a  day  as  much  as  good-sized  blast  furnaces  a  few 
years  ago  (and  many  now  existing)  would  turn  out  in  a  week. 


44         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

A  great  deal  of  the  metal  from  American  furnaces  is, 
however,  cast  into  pig  iron,  and  here  we  find  a  notable 
feature  in  operation.  Pig  iron  is  ordinarily  cast  on  the  pig 
bed,  which  is  a  level  expanse  of  sand  in  front  of  the  furnace. 
This  has  a  certain  number  of  shallow  channels  in  it,  and 
branching  from  the  channels  are  short  blind  ditches  or 
moulds.  The  channels  are  known  as  "  sows  "  and  the 
blind  ditches  are  "  pigs."  The  molten  metal  fills  the  sows 
and  pig  moulds,  and,  when  cold,  has  only  to  be  broken  up 
to  form  the  well-known  pig  iron  of  commerce.  This  is  the 
time-honoured  method  of  making  pig  that  has  been  handed 
down  to  us  by  our  forefathers  from  generation  to  generation. 
It  has  several  defects.  In  the  first  place  a  good  deal  of 
sand  adheres  to  the  metal.  This  is  not  a  drawback  in  the 
eyes  of  the  iron  maker,  for  sand  is  cheaper  than  iron,  and 
the  more  sand  adhering  the  more  the  profit.  From  the 
user's  point  of  view  sand  is  not  a  good  thing  to  have  in 
the  cupola,  both  for  commercial  and  chemical  reasons. 

There  are  one  or  two  forms  of  casting  machines.  At  the 
Duquesne  furnaces  the  Uehling  machine  is  used.  With 
this  the  molten  metal  is  run  into  cast-iron  moulds  strung 
together  in  a  continuous  chain.  These  are  caused  to  travel 
along  by  means  of  an  engine,  each  in  turn  being  brought 
under  the  running  stream  of  melted  iron,  and  finally  the 
pigs,  when  cooled,  are  transferred  to  the  railway  cars. 
Here,  again,  the  operations  are  carried  out  by  mechanical 
means,  the  great  virtue  of  the  apparatus  being  that  it  saves 
labour.  We  have  casting  machines  in  England,  notably  one 
devised  by  Mr.  K.  H.  Wainford,  of  Stoke-on-Trent,  but 
machine  casting  has  met  with  a  good  deal  of  opposition  in 
this  country.  There  is,  first,  the  objection  of  the  ironmakers 
that  if  their  pigs  are  all  iron  and  no  sand  the  profit  is  less, 
though  this  drawback  is  never  more  than  whispered  among 
themselves.  But  it  is  openly  said  that  purchasers  will  not 
often  pay  the  difference  in  price  to  compensate  for  the  cost 
of  purer  material.  Again,  casting  in  iron  moulds,  or 
"  chills,"  alters  the  appearance  of  the  "  fracture  "  ;  and, 
as  iron  is  largely  bought  by  the  fracture,  chilled  pigs  may 


MANUFACTURE   OF   STEEL.  45 

not  be  readily  saleable,  though  chemical  analysis  might 
show  them  to  be  really  everything  desirable.  All  this, 
however,  is  beside  the  mark  when  the  iron  is  Used  for  steel 
making  and  is  not  sold  as  iron.  In  that  case  the  appear- 
ance of  the  "  fracture  "  is  not  of  any  consequence,  and  the 
full  advantage  of  machine  casting  is  obtained. 

It  is  said  that  the  cost  of  labour  when  the  casting 
machine  is  used  is  about  ten  cents  per  ton.  Three  men 
per  shift  are  able  to  attend  to  a  machine  having  a 
capacity  of  1,500  tons  of  pig  per  24  hours.  To  set 
against  this  advantage  there  is  the  somewhat  heavy  first 
cost  of  the  apparatus.  Therefore  present  sacrifice  has  to 
be  made  to  get  a  future  gain  ;  but  those  interested  state 
that  the  saving  in  labour  gives  a  very  handsome  return 
for  the  outlay  of  capital.  Work  on  the  ordinary  pig  bed 
is  of  an  especially  trying  nature,  and,  if  only  in  the  name 
of  humanity,  should  be  done  away  with  if  possible. 

Leaving  out,  for  want  of  space,  several  details  peculiar 
to  American  practice,  I  will  pass  on  to  the  charging  floor  of 
the  steel  furnaces.  An  open-hearth,  or  Siemens-Martin, 
furnace  in  its  many  forms  has  much  the  outward  appear- 
ance of  a  gigantic  baker's  oven  well  strapped  with  iron 
buckstaves.  There  is  an  iron  door,  and  through  this  when 
opened  may  be  seen,  on  the  hollowed  refractory  floor  of 
the  furnace,  a  pool  of  bubbling  molten  metal  of  40  to  50 
tons,  brought  to  so  intense  a  heat  that  the  eye  can  no 
more  look  at  it  than  on  the  noonday  sun.  The  particular 
row  of  furnaces  I  have  in  mind  is  one  of  the  sets  at  the 
Homestead  Works.  There  are  20  altogether,  and  they 
were  commenced  about  two  years  ago,  when  ten  47-ton 
furnaces  (actual)  were  erected.  After  only  one  year  had 
elapsed  ten  more  furnaces  were  built  of  rather  larger  capacity, 
working  50-ton  charges.  At  the  time  of  my  visit  four  more 
of  the  larger  size  were  in  progress,  making  24  in  all ;  but 
further  ones  were  shortly  to  be  added.  This  instance  of 
rapid  progress  by  no  means  stands  alone ;  it  is  typical. 

The  materials  used  for  producing  the  mild  steel — pig 
iron,  scrap,  and  ore — are  taken  from  the  railway  wagons 


1(5         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

by  electric  travelling  cranes,  and  placed  in  iron  charging 
boxes  or  troughs  which  are  carried  on  small  trucks. 
These  boxes  form  part  of  a  very  ingenious  machine  which 
constitutes  a  leading  feature  in  a  good  many  steel  plants 
of  America.  This  is  known  as  the  Wellman-Seaver 
charging  machine.  It  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
labour-saving  appliances  used  in  the  United  States  steel 
works.  The  charging  platform  of  a  battery  of  open- 
hearth  furnaces  has  rails  laid  on  it  running  parallel  with 
the  row  of  furnaces.  Upon  these  the  charging  machine 
is  traversed  on  its  wheels  so  as  to  command  each  furnace 
door  in  turn.  The  machine  consists  essentially  of  a 
strong  platform  and  framework,  upon  which  are  the 
charging  mechanism  and  the  electrical  motors  that  per- 
form all  the  operations.  The  machine  is  traversed  on  its 
rails  until  it  is  opposite  to  the  charging  door  of  the 
furnace,  the  charging  box  tin  its  bogie  being  between 
the  furnace  and  the  machine.  The  operator,  seated  on 
the  machine,  simply  by  turning  an  electrical  switch 
causes  a  strong  steel  arm  or  charging-bar  to  be  thrust 
forward.  This  grasps  the  charging  box,  pushes  it  bodily 
through  the  open  door  into  the  glowing  furnace,  and, 
turning  it  over,  spills  the  contents  into  the  pool  of 
seething  metal — or  bath,  as  it  is  technically  called.  As 
the  furnace  doors  are  opened  by  hydraulic  means,  and  as 
the  bogies  carrying  the  charging  boxes  are  also  moved  by 
the  machine,  no  labour  is  needed  beyond  that  of  the 
attendant  who  puts  the  mechanism  into  action.  A  charge 
of  half  a  ton  is  placed  in  the  furnace  with  almost  in- 
credible smoothness  and  swiftness,  a  few  seconds  being 
quite  sufficient  for  the  purpose. 

This  is  the  new  way  of  charging  an  open-hearth  furnace. 
The  old  way  (which  is  largely  the  present  way)  is  exactly 
that  which  would  have  been  followed  by  Adam,  or  by  Tubal 
Cain,  if  he  had  had  a  furnace  to  charge.  The  Wellman- 
Seaver  machine  is  an  advance  at  a  stride.  It  carries  us  from 
the  most  primitive  form  of  labour  to  that  of  a  wonderfully 
organized  apparatus,  actuated  by  the  subtle  power  of 


MANUFACTURE  OF   STEEL.  47 

which  we  now  hear  so  much  and  have  learnt  so  little,  but 
which  we  know  is  destined  to  relieve  humanity  of  a  great 
part  of  the  drudgery  of  civilization.  By  machinery  of  this 
kind  men  are  set  free  to  exercise  those  higher  gifts  which 
are  the  common  heritage  of  all,  but  which  are  too  often 
submerged  by  continuous  labour  of  an  arduous  nature 
carried  out  under  distressing  conditions. 


APHIL  30,  1900. ; 
VtL— MANUFACTURE  OF  STEEL.— II. 

Open-hearth  steel  furnaces  are  charged  from  the  plat- 
form as  already  described,  unless  direct  metal  is  used. 
When  the  metal  is  ready  it  is  tapped  from  the  opposite  side 
of  the  furnace  and  run  into  a  ladle.  From  the  latter  it  is 
poured  into  moulds  to  be  cast  into  ingots.  The  ingot  moulds 
are  massive  cast-iron  boxes  without  top  or  bottom,  and  of 
rectangular  section  ;  flat  ingots  are  often  cast,  especially 
for  heavier  work.  The  ingots  vary  in  size  according  to  the 
purpose  for  which  they  are  needed.  In  America  a  typical 
ingot  for  rolling  into  plates  would  be  about  12in.  by 
36in.  by  48in.,  and  would  weigh  nearly  two  and  a  half 
tons.  Ingots  up  to  ten  tons  weight  are  not  altogether  un-* 
common,  and  for  armour-plate  work  far  larger  masses  of 
metal  are  cast  together  in  one  mould. 

The  steel,  as  stated,  is  poured  from  the  steel-making 
furnace  into  a  ladle,  and  from  the  ladle  it  is  run  into  the 
ingot  moulds.  The  practice  in  England  is  to  place  these 
moulds  in  a  pit,  where  they  remain  until  the  ingot  is 
solid  enough  to  stand  on  end-  The  moulds  are  then 
stripped  off  by  a  crane,  the  ingots  being  left  standing  on 
the  floor  of  the  pit.  The  still  red-hot  ingots  are  loaded  on 
to  railway  trucks  by  a  crane  and  taken  away  to  undergo 
further  operations  in  the  steel  mill.  The  American  prac- 
tice differs  from  this.  In  the  first  place,  the  casting  pit  is 
not  used,  except  for  very  large  ingots  such  as  those  needed 
for  armour-plate  work.  The  ladle,  with  the  molten  steel 


46         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

fresh  from  the  furnace,  is  taken  by  an  overhead  travelling 
crane  and  brought  into  position  over  the  ingot  mould, 
when  the  metal  is  run  in  the  usual  way.  The  ingot 
moulds,  however,  instead  of  standing  on  the  ground,  are 
placed  on  a  specially  made  bogie  or  small  railway  truck, 
the  platform  of  which  itself  forms  a  bottom  to  the  open- 
ended  moulds.  In  the  English  practice  the  bottom  of  the 
pit  forms  the  bottom  of  the  mould.  In  America,  as  soon 
as  the  moulds  have  been  filled  with  the  molten  steel,  the 
bogies  on  which  they  rest  are  drawn  away  by  a  locomotive, 
and  when  the  steel  is  sufficiently  set  the  moulds  are 
stripped  off.  In  place  of  this  being  done,  as  in  England, 
by  a  simple  crane  lifting  off  the  moulds,  the  weight  of  the 
ingot  being  relied  upon  to  keep  it  from  rising  at  the  same 
time,  a  special  stripping  machine  is  brought  into  play. 
This  consists  of  two  suspended  hydraulic  cylinders,  under 
which  the  trucks,  with  the  full  ingot  moulds  on  them,  are 
run.  Hooks,  attached  by  links  to  one  of  these  cylinders, 
engage  with  lugs  in  the  mould,  whilst  the  other  cylinder 
pushes  down  a  foot  which  presses  on  the  ingot  itself  and 
prevents  the  latter  from  rising  when  the  mould  is  lifted 
off.  The  rapidity  and  certainty  with  which  this  machine 
works  are  very  pleasing. 

American  steel-makers  prefer  their  own  system  of 
dealing  with  ingots  to  that  which  we  follow,  and  one  is 
bound  to  respect  their ,  opinion,  as  they  have  gone  to 
much  expense  in  substituting  the  new  system  for  the  old. 
The  overhead  travelling  electric  crane  they  use  is  an 
expensive  machine,  and  the  hydraulic  stripper  is  also  an 
additional  first-charge,  bufc,  to  judge  by  the  deserted 
appearance  of  an  American  steel-melting  house  in  front  of 
the  furnaces,  these  appliances  must  save  a  good  deal  of 
labour.  Some  British  steel-makers,  however,  attach  a 
good  deal  of  importance  to  ingot  moulds'  not  being  taken 
out  of  the  melting-house. 

It  will  readily  be  understood  that  it  is  desirable  the 
ingot  should  remain  red  hot  for  the  subsequent  operations 
of  rolling  into  plates,  rails,  &c.  The  metal,  as  it  comes 


MANUFACTURE   Otf    STEEL.  49 

from  the  furnace,  being  quite  fluid,  is  naturally  more  than 
hot  enough,  and  it  might  seem  a  simple  matter  just  to  let 
it  cool  to  the  right  temperature  and  then  roll  it.  A  little 
reflection,  however,  will  reveal  a  difficulty  which  makes 
this  impossible.  The*  ingot  is  cooled  by  radiation,  and 
therefore  the  outside  of  this  mass  of  steel,  weighing 
perhaps  as  much  as  ten  tons,  will  be  of  a  moderate  heat, 
whilst  the  core  would  still  be  quite  fluid.  Very  terrible 
accidents  have  happened  through  moulds  being  prema- 
turely stripped.  The  solid  walls  may  not  have  become 
quite  strong  enough  to  stand  the  pressure  of  the  fluid 
metal  within,  and  this  has  burst  out,  sending  a  flood  of 
liquid  steel  across  the  ingot  pit,  overwhelming  everything 
in  its  course. 

It  will  easily  be  seen  that,  this  being  a  possibility 
when  an  ingot  has  only  to  stand  up  under  its  own  weight, 
it  would  be  hopeless  to  expect  to  subject  it  to  the  enormous 
pressure  of  passing  through  the  rolls  in  order  to  flatten  it 
to  a  plate  or  extend  it  into  a  rail.  The  colder  outer  skin 
would  at  once  be  ruptured  and  the  fluid  inner  part  would 
spurt  across  the  mill,  carrying  destruction  before  it. 

In  these  circumstances  it  became  necessary  to  let  the 
ingot  cool  sufficiently  and  then  place  it  in  a  special 
furnace,  where  it  remained  until  hot  enough  for  rolling. 
In  this  case,  the  heat  being  taken  from  outside,  and  the 
reheating  furnace  never  having  the  high  temperature  of 
th«  melting  furnace  in  which  the  steel  was  made,  there 
was  no  fear  of  the  liquid  core  spurting  out  when  rolled. 
An  ingenious  Scandinavian  steel-maker,  the  late  Mr. 
Gjers,  who  had  early  settled  in  England,  devised  a  scheme 
for  utilizing  the  primary  heat  of  the  ingot.  He  constructed 
pits  in  the  ground,  known  as  soaking  pits.  These  were 
lined  with  refractory  material  and  had  fire-brick  covers. 9 
It  was  thought  that  the  heat  would  be  retained  in  the  pit 
as  it  radiated  from  the  ingot,  which  would  thus  be 
"  soaked "  to  a  uniform  temperature  throughout.  To  a 
large  extent  this  end  was  reached,  but  it  has  been  found 
desirable  to  supplement  the  original  heat  from  the  ingot 

D 


50         AMERICAN  ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

by  a  certain  amount  of  gas  burnt  in  the  soaking  pit* 
although  big  ingots  may  be  soaked  effectively  with  very 
little  gas  expended. 

In  European  steel  works  the  gas  used  in  the  various 
furnaces  is  made  in  special  vessels  known  as  producers,  but 
in  some  parts  of  America,  especially  in  the  Pittsburgh 
district,  they  have  the  advantage  of  natural  gas.  This  is 
a  very  much  richer  fuel  than  the  producer  gas  and  for  this 
reason  offers  advantages  to  the  steel-maker  apart  from  its 
cheapness.  It  is  used  exclusively  for  many  purposes  in 
the  Pittsburgh  steel  works,  being  employed  in  the  open- 
hearth  regenerative  furnaces,  already  described,  in  which 
the  steel  is  made.  In  any  case  the  ingot  has  to  be  placed 
in  the  furnace  through  a  hole  in  the  flooring.  In  America 
time  and  labour  are  saved  by  fitting  hydraulic  cylinders  to 
the  covers  of  the  charging  holes.  This  is  a  very  con- 
venient arrangement,  far  more  handy  than  the  hand  lever 
common  in  England,  or  the  practice  of  bringing  the 
hydraulic  crane  into  play.  The  American  crane  by  which 
the  ingot  is  placed  in  the  pit  is  also  devised  to  save 
labour.  It  has  a  rigid  guided  plunger,  worked  by  a  rack 
and  pinion,  so  that  there  is  no  need  to  direct  the  ingot 
into  the  pit  in  the  manner  necessary  if  it  be  swinging  free, 
as  with  an  ordinary  crane.  There  is  also  a  pneumatic 
device  for  closing  the  tongs  to  grip  the  ingot.  For  this 
purpose  air  is  compressed  by  a  small  electric  motor  on  the 
operator's  platform. 

The  effect  of  attention  to  these  details  is  shown  in  the 
very  small  number  of  men  there  are  alike  on  the  charging 
platform  of  the  furnaces,  in  the  melting-house  generally, 
and  round  the  pits.  Everything,  indeed,  is  done  by 
machinery,  not  only  the  lifting,  but  the  guiding  and 
picking  up  of  the  ingots.  There  are  just  a  few  operators  to 
turn  handles  or  press  levers.  It  is  these  things  that  enable 
the  American  manufacturer  to  pay  his  men  higher  daily 
wages  than  are  usual  in  older  countries,  although  the 
labour,  when  reckoned  by  product,  is  the  lowest  in  the 
world  ;  therefore  both  masters  and  men  are  better  off. 


MANUFACTURE   OF   STEEL.  51 

It  will,  of  course,  be  understood  that  in  British  iron  and 
steel  works  there  are  labour-saving  appliances,  some  of 
which  may  have  been  copied  from  other  countries, 
whilst  others  have  originated  at  home.  Doubtless  many, 
one  might  say  very  many,  of  the  inventions  seen  in 
the  United  States  were  first  produced  in  England. 
The  American  manufacturers,  however,  have  done  the 
whole  thing  more  completely — have  worked  in  thousands 
while  we  have  hesitated  with  tens — and  they  have  reaped 
the  reward  of  their  fearlessness.  If  they  have  at  times 
suffered  from  the  defect  of  rashness  in  pushing  enterprise 
too  far,  the  net  result  remains  that  American  steel  plant 
can  be  worked  with  less  labour  than  ours,  and  material 
can  be  produced  at  a  cheaper  rate  than  in  this  country. 

The  ingot  after  being  taken  from  the  soaking  pit 
commences  the  second  stage  of  its  career,  which  consists 
entirely  of  mechanical  operations.  In  fact  it  ceases  to  be 
an  ingot,  the  rolling  mill  to  which  it  passes  converting  it 
ultimately  into  a  plate,  rail,  bar,  or  other  finished  product 
of  the  steel  works,  or  possibly  it  may  be  sold  in  the  shape 
of  a  slab,  billet,  or  bloom.  The  machinery  by  which  these 
operations  are  effected  is  of  a  most  powerful  description 
and  may  be  ranked  amongst  the  greatest  triumphs  of 
mechanical  engineering  enterprise,  whether  in  Great 
Britain  or  the  United  States.  The  procedure  in  the  two 
countries  differs  in  many  details  and  not  a  few  essentials. 
The  chief  of  the  latter  is  the  use  by  the  United  States 
steel-makers  of  three-high  mills,  whilst  in  England  two- 
high  mills  are  usual  for  anything  like  heavy  work.  To 
Mr.  Fritz,  of  the  Cambria  Ironworks,  the  general  use  of 
three-high  mills  for  heavy  work  is  due  ;  and  the  manner 
in  which  he  insisted  on  the  adoption  of  this  system  in 
opposition  to  the  opinion  of  the  directors  of  the  company 
is  typical  of  the  practical  and  self-reliant  class  to  which 
he  belongs.  The  ordinary  British  rolling  mill  has  two 
rolls,  the  axes  of  which  are  in  the  same  vertical  plane.  The 
work  is  passed  between  the  rolls  backward  and  forward,  the 
direction  of  rotation  of  the  rolls  being  reversed  with  each 


52         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

pass,  the  engine  having  reversing  gear  similar  in  principle 
to  that  of  a  marine  engine.  Three-high  rolling  mills 
have  three  rolls  placed  above  one  other,  and  the 
middle  roll  naturally  revolves  in  an  opposite  direc- 
tion to  that  of  the  top  and  bottom  ones.  In  this 
way  it  will  be  seen  that  if  the  object  to  be 
rolled  is  passed  between  the  bottom  and  middle  roll  it  can 
be  sent  back  between  the  middle  and  top  roll,  no  reversing 
of  the  rolls  being  needed.  To  work  in  this  way  it  is 
necessary  that  the  heavy  steel  object  that  is  being  rolled 
should  be  raised  in  order  to  be  entered  between  the  top 
and  middle  rolls  for  the  return  pass.  It  is  the  perfection 
to  which  the  American  engineers  have  brought  the 
mechanism  of  the  rolling  mill  that  enables  this  to  be  done 
with  facility  and  ensures  the  success  of  the  system.  It 
should  further  be  stated  that  the  profitable  working  of  the 
three-high  mill  largely  depends  on  the  typical  American 
practice  of  standardizing  the  product.  The  two-high  mill 
is  readily  adjustable  in  regard  to  the  thickness  of  the  work, 
as  the  top  roll  can  be  easily  raised  and  lowered,  thus 
altering  the  space  between  the  rolls  at  will.  It  may  be 
said  in  favour  of  the  English  practice  that  one  or  two 
important  mills  lately  installed  in  America  have  been  two- 
high  ;  still,  the  highest  product  has  been  obtained  from 
three-high  non-adjustable  rolling  mills.  I  believe  the 
"  record  "  for  rails  is  held  by  the  three-high  mill  of  the 
Edgar  Thompson  works  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company. 
When  I  was  last  at  these  works — i.e.,  in  November,  1899 — 
the  accounts  showed  that  during  the  previous  month  70,000 
tons  of  Bessemer  ingots  had  been  produced  by  the  furnaces, 
and  57,000  tons  of  rails  had  been  rolled.  The  rate  of  the 
total  annual  product  of  rails  up  to  that  time  was  650,000 
tons,  so  October,  1899,  was  a  trifle  below  the  average.* 

*Since  the  above  was  written  the  following  paragraph  has  appeared  in 
EiujiHcer'my  • — "  The  world's  record  for  turning  out  steel  rails  was  again 
broken  at  the  plant  of  the  Illinois  Steel  Company,  when  a  day  shift  put 
out  1,442  tons  in  12  hours.  The  night  shift  turned  out  1,235  tons,  making 
a  total  for  24  hours  of  2,677  tons.  During  the  24  hours  the  rolls  were  shut 
down  1  hour  57  minutes." 


MANUFACTUKE   OF   STEEL.  53 

To  turn  again  to  the  plate  mills,  one  of  the  best 
equipped  in  America  is  that  of  the  Illinois  Steel  Com- 
pany at  South  Chicago,  these  works  being  part  of  the  amal- 
gamation known  now  as  the  Federal  Steel  Company,  to 
which  reference  has  already  been  made.  I  mention  this 
plant,  as  it  is  described  by  Mr.  S.  T.  Wellman,  of  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  in  a  paper  he  read  before  the  Institution 
of  Civil  Engineers.  English  engineers  may,  therefore, 
readily  find  details,  together  with  other  interesting 
matter,  in  the  proceedings  of  that  institution.  There  are 
two  stands  of  three-high  rolls,  and  ingots  24in.  thick  can 
be  taken  by  them.  The  ingot  is  placed  on  a  "  table,"  so 
called.  It  consists  rather  of  a  framework,  in  which  are 
mounted  live  rollers  with  their  axes  in  the  same  horizontal 
plane,  and  all  parallel  to  the  mill-rolls.  When  the  ingot 
is  placed  on  these  rollers,  they  are  caused  to  revolve  by  an 
engine,  and  the  ingot  is  thus  impelled  forward  and  thrust 
between  the  rolls  of  the  three-high  train.  Having  been 
considerably  flattened  by  passing  through  the  mill,  the 
red-hot  ingot,  which  may  weigh  from  seven  to  eight  tons, 
is  deposited  on  another  table  fitted  with  rollers.  This 
table  is  now  raised  bodily  the  necessary  height  to  present 
the  ingot  between  the  top  and  intermediate  rolls,  when 
another  pass  is  made,  and  so  on  until  the  plate  is  rolled. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  ingot  is  made  directly  into 
a  plate  at  one  heat,  whereas  the  old  process,  still  followed 
in  England,  is  to  roll  the  ingot  into  a  slab  on  a  cogging 
mill,  then  to  reheat  the  slab  and  roll  it  into  a  plate.  This 
absence  of  cogging  affords  another  instance  of  American 
boldness  in  the  effort  to  save  labour.  In  early  days  steel 
ingots  were  worked  under  the  steam  hammer  to  reduce 
them  to  the  required  dimensions,  and  subject  them  to  the 
"  work "  which  was  considered  needful  for  producing 
trustworthy  material.  The  cogging  mill  took  the  place  of 
the  steam  hammer,  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  hydraulic 
press  has  superseded  the  latter  for  heavy  forging.  The 
result  of  the  introduction  of  the  cogging  mill  was  a  great 
saving  in  labour  and  a  greater  gain  in  expediting  work. 


54          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

It  is  held  by  some  that  trustworthy  results  cannot  be 
secured  when  plates  are  reduced  from  ingots  direct,  but 
tests  that  have  been  made  hardly  bear  out  this  view. 
Xaturally,  the  plate  mill,  working  blooms  that  have  been 
cogged  from  the  ingot,  will  produce  more  plates  than  the 
mill  which  carries  on  both  operations.  Which  system  is 
the  more  advantageous  in  the  long  run  appears  to  be  a 
matter  of  opinion,  in  which  British  and  American  steel- 
makers take  opposite  sides.  As  all  the  rolling  has  to  be 
done  at  one  heat  on  the  American  system,  the  speed  must 
almost  necessarily  be  greater,  and  rolls  are  therefore  run 
faster  than  with  us,  a  fact  which  in  itself  accounts  for 
larger  production.  At  the  Homestead  Works  there  is  a 
38in.  blooming  mill  which  is  run  by  the  engine  by  direct 
connexion,  without  the  intervention  of  gearing,  a  remark- 
able fact  in  itself.  In  this  mill,  nothing  at  all  is  done  by 
hand,  except,  of  course,  the  controlling  of  the  hydraulic 
turning  gear  ;  indeed,  the  whole  process  is  so  strictly 
mechanical  in  its  nature  that  hardly  any  men  are  seen 
round  the  mill.  The  electric  crane  places  the  hot  ingot 
on  the  approach  table,  which  contains  live  rollers  driven 
by  an  electric  motor.  The  revolving  of  the  rollers  carries 
the  ingot  to  the  table  of  the  mill,  which  has  also  driven 
rollers.  These  are  actuated  by  a  steam  engine,  as  they 
have  to  be  reversed.  The  ingot  is  then  reduced  from  its 
original  dimensions  of  18in.  by  20in.  in  section  to  4in.  by 
4in.,  and  of  course  proportionately  longer.  It  is  then 
taken  by  a  long  train  of  live  rollers  to  a  pair  of  steam 
shears,  where  it  is  cut  up  into  suitable  lengths  or  blooms, 
the  powerful  blades  of  the  machine  shearing  through  the 
huge  bar  of  steel  with  ease.  The  billets  as  they  come  from 
the  shears  pass,  by  themselves,  to  shoots  and  so  into  rail- 
way trucks  for  despatch  to  their  purchasers.  All  these 
operations  are  carried  out  by  machinery,  human  interven- 
tion being  needed  only  for  directing  the  mechanism.  At 
Homestead,  I  was  informed,  plates  10ft.  Gin.  wide,  70ft. 
long,  and  IJin.  to  2in.  in  thickness  can  be  rolled,  and  it 
is  quite  possible  to  roll  a  100-ton  ingot. 


MANUFACTURE   OF   STEEL.  55 

Amongst  other  labour-saving  devices  that  may  be 
mentioned  is  the  hydraulic  machinery  for  turning  ingots 
in  the  heating  furnaces.  Again,  the  Wellman  machine  is 
largely  used  for  charging  and  withdrawing  blooms  in  re- 
heating furnaces.  These  machines  are  placed  on  rails  and 
run  up  and  down  in  front  of  the  furnaces,  doing  their  work 
with  an  ease  and  expedition  that  are  a  great  contrast  to 
the  exhausting  and  trying  labour  which  is  needed  by  men 
working  the  old-fashioned  piel  still  in  use.  The  Wellman 
machine  takes  the  bloom  and  delivers  it  to  the  live  rollers 
of  the  mill  table,  by  which  it  is  fed  up  to  be  rolled  into  a 
finished  part.  Another  labour-saving  device  is  secured  by 
the  use  of  a  powerful  electro-magnet,  in  place  of  an 
ordinary  hook,  for  lifting  plates  and  other  parts  by  the 
electric  crane.  The  magnet  is  brought  in  contact  with 
the  plate,  and  the  current  is  then  applied.  This  causes 
the  two  poles  to  become  magnetic  according  to  the  well- 
known  law,  and  the  plate,  bar,  &c.,  is  duly  raised  upon  the 
crane's  being  set  to  work.  It  is  said  that  as  much  as  50 
tons  have  been  lifted  in  this  way.  The  saving  in  labour 
will  be  apparent,  for  it  is  often  a  difficult  task  to  get  the 
slings  round  the  plates  or  to  attach  hooks.  The  system  is 
not  without  its  drawbacks.  One  of  the  chief  is  the 
probability  of  lifting  two  plates  instead  of  one,  when  they 
are  piled  one  above  the  other.  There  is  also  the  possibility 
of  the  electric  current's  being  interrupted  from  some  acci- 
dental cause,  when,  of  course,  the  plate  would  be  dropped. 
Again,  when  the  current  is  shut  off  the  plate  must  still  be 
held  for  a  second  owing  to  a  cause  somewhat  obscure  in  its 
origin,  but  which  takes  the  form  of  residual  magnetism. 
A  further  defect  is  that  a  plate  will  be  apt  to  slip  if  the 
poles  are  not  normal  to  its  surface.  At  the  Illinois  Steel 
Works,  where  this  system  is  largely  used,  I  saw  a  bent 
plate  quite  baffle  the  efforts  of  the  crane  to  get  hold  of  it. 
All  these  points  being  taken  into  consideration,  however, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  magnetic  system  affords  a  very 
appreciable  and  very  valuable  saving  in  time  and  labour. 
Moreover,  the  chance  of  accident  through  the  magnet 


156         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

letting  go  is  less  than  that  of  men  being  injured  through 
the  buckling  of  plates,  and  hooks  consequently  flying  off. 

There  are  many  other  details  of  rail  and  plate  rolling 
that  could  be  described,  did  space  permit.  There  are  the 
methods  of  handling  the  plates  at  the  shears  by  which  the 
labour  of  a  considerable  number  of  men  is  dispensed  with. 
A  simple  but  most  effective  device  here  is  known  as  the 
"  goose-neck."  It  may  be  likened  to  a  very  strong  table- 
leg  stuck  in  the  ground  with  the  castor  upwards.  At 
South  Chicago  there  is  a  perfect  forest  of  these,  and  it  is 
quite  possible  for  a  man  to  walk  about  among  them  and 
push  a  heavy  plate  in  any  direction  with  comparative 
ease.  The  rail  mill  at  Carnegie's  Edgar  Thompson  Works, 
which  has  such  a  remarkable  productive  capacity,  would 
be  well  worth  detailed  description,  did  space  permit.  It  is 
a  really  wonderful  example  of  rapid  working  and  auto- 
matic operating  from  first  to  last. 

Nothing,  also,  has  been  said  about  the  rolling  of  steel 
beams,  channels,  and  other  structural  material.  The 
American  steel-makers  have  paid  special  attention  to  this 
branch  of  industry,  the  number  of  different  sections  they 
produce  being  remarkable.  One  firm  in  Pittsburgh,  Jones 
and  Laughlin's,  roll  forms  that  appear  almost  bewildering 
in  their  variety,  but  nevertheless  must  much  simplify  the 
labours  of  the  engineer  and  architect  in  designing  steel 
structures.  Notwithstanding  the  enormous  scale  on  which 
their  neighbours,  the  Carnegie  Company,  operate,  the 
works  of  this  firm  are  truly  remarkable,  and  many  details 
of  their  splendid  plant  are  well  worthy  of  attention.  To 
give  an  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  this  structural  steel  in- 
dustry— and  it  is  rolled  sections  that  constitute  the  bulk 
of  this  firm's  product — it  may  be  stated  that  in  their  steel 
works  alone  they  employ  about  5,000  men.  They  have 
four  blast  furnaces,  each  making  600  tons  of  iron  a  day, 
and  also  one  producing  300  tons  a  day.  Their  Bessemer 
plant  will  turn  out  2,500  tons  of  steel  a  day,  and  the  mills 
will  roll  2,000  tons  of  finished  shapes  per  day.  A  very  inte- 
resting feature  here  is  the  cold  rolling  of  shafting  up  to 


STRUCTURAL   STEEL   WORK.  57 

5in.  in  diameter  and  up  to  50ft.  in  length.  This  can  be 
produced  to  such  a  degree  of  accuracy  that  it  will  not  vary 
one  thousandth  of  an  inch  above  or  below  the  specified 
size.  What  this  means  in  the  way  of  finished  machinery 
for  its  production  engineers  will  appreciate.  The  shafting 
is  straightened  in  hydraulic  presses  and  is  even  better  than 
the  far  more  costly  turned  shafting,  as  the  rolling  increases 
the  strength.  A  good  deal  of  it  is  sent  to  England.  The 
company  get  their  ore  from  their  own  deposits  on  Lake 
Superior  ;  they  have  their  own  coke  ovens,  about  25  miles 
away  up  in  the  mountains,  and  their  own  coalfields,  from 
which  they  bring  coal  by  river  50  miles  to  Pittsburgh  to  be 
made  into  coke  near  the  blast  furnaces.  The  magnitude 
of  the  business  done  by  this  firm  has  doubled  within  the 
last  five  years  and  has  increased  fourfold  since  1882.  They 
roll  a  standard  section  solid  steel  I  beam  20in.  deep  and 
7^in.  across  the  flanges.  A  great  many  of  the  three-flanged 
steel  posts  for  wire  fences  that  we  see  in  England  are  rolled 
at  these  works. 


MAY  10,  1900. 
VIII.— STRUCTURAL   STEEL   WORK. 

In  constructive  steel  work  the  Americans  have  made 
great  advances  during  the  last  few  years.  This  is  putting 
the  case  very  tamely,  but  one  tires  of  writing  superlatives 
about  the  American  steel  industry.  It  is  better  to  let  facts 
speak  for  themselves.  The  many  miles  of  new  railway 
yearly  constructed  in  the  United  States  demand  a  large 
number  of  bridges,  and  this  alone  is  sufficient  to  give  a 
great  impetus  to  the  production  of  steel.  When  we  find 
one  firm  building  for  themselves  a  railway  bridge  across  a 
river  as  wide  as  the  Thames  at  London,  simply  to  make 
communication  between  two  of  its  factories,  it  is  easy  to 
suppose  that  bridges  are  not  very  expensive  in  America. 
The  bridge  in  question  has  been  already  referred  to  as 
being  made  by  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company,  who  do  a 
great  deal  of  structural  steel  work  in  addition  to  making 


58          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

steel.  Their  Keystone  Bridge  Works  are,  I  believe — I 
have  not  inspected  them — the  largest  establishment  of 
the  kind  in  the  United  States.  It  is  one  of  the  strong 
points  of  the  American  system  that  those  who  contract 
for  structural  work  are  largely  producers  of  steel.  The 
Carnegie  Company  have  over  a  hundred  draughtsmen  in 
their  Pittsburgh  office,  and  they  will  furnish  designs  for  a 
building  containing  thousands  of  tons  of  steel,  and  make 
no  charge  for  the  design  if  they  get  the  contract  for  the 
material.  This  is  a  marked  contrast  to  our  usual  procedure 
with  heavy  architects'  fees. 

The  big  steel  buildings  of  America  have  been  too  often 
written  about  to  make  any  detailed  description  of  them 
necessary  here ;  but  I  doubt  if  many  persons  in  England 
have  an  idea  how  completely  in  America  steel  is  taking  the 
place,  not  only  of  wood,  but  of  brick  and  stone.  One  of 
these  enormous  edifices  will  contain  ten  to  20  thousand 
tons  of  steel,  and  will  be  20  to  25  storeys  high.  The  frame- 
work is  erected  with  marvellous  rapidity,  very  powerful 
lifting  appliances  being  installed  by  the  contractors  for  the 
purpose.  As  all  the  parts  are  prepared  accurately  to  size 
at  the  works,  with  holes  drilled,  they  have  only  to  be  fitted 
together  and  a  few  rivets  or  bolts  put  in  to  make  the 
skeleton  of  the  house.  I  had  a  curious  experience  ;  for, 
arriving  at  an  hotel,  I  saw  out  of  my  room  window  a  sub- 
stantial stone  building  ;  four  days  later  this  had  entirely 
disappeared  ;  in  fact,  the  visible  part  went  almost  in  a 
night.  A  little  over  a  week  after  there  was  what  appeared 
to  be  an  enormous  steel  cage  in  the  same  place.  This  was 
the  framework  of  the  new  building,  fast  working  up  to  the 
20  storeys  of  its  next  door  neighbour.  The  foundations  of 
the  new  structure  had  been  put  in  whilst  the  old  one  was 
being  pulled  down. 

Steel  erections  of  this  kind  are  immensely  strong,  and? 
if  properly  designed,  can  be  made  into  that  rarest  kind  of 
structure,  a  really  fireproof  building.  For  this  reason  they 
are  becoming  more  and  more  used  for  warehouses  and  for 
city  edifices  that  are  not  exactly  factories,  but  in  which  a 


STRUCTURAL   STEEL   WORK.  .  r>0 

good  deal  of  machinery  is  employed,  such  as  printing 
offices.  I  examined  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  a  typical  building 
of  this  kind,  designed  by  a  firm  of  engineers,  Messrs.  Well- 
man  and  Seaver,  of  that  city.  The  whole  structural  part 
was  of  steel,  the  walls  being  merely  masonry  panels  filled 
in  to  give  protection  against  the  weather.  As  all  the  parts 
were  riveted  or  bolted  together — verticals  and  horizontals, 
columns,  girders,  beams,  and  joists — it  would  be  almost 
impossible  for  the  building  to  collapse  in  any  circum- 
stances. One  could  imagine  a  hundred  times  magnified 
Titan  crumpling  the  whole  thing  up  with  a  thousand-ton 
sledge-hammer,  when,  doubtless,  the  joints  would  give; 
but  short  of  that  it  would  stand  almost  any  possible  load. 
So  far  as  the  structure  itself  was  concerned  there  was 
nothing  to  burn,  but  many  inflammable  things  must  neces- 
sarily be  brought  into  a  building  of  this  nature.  No 
structure  will  collapse  more  quickly  under  heat  than  a 
framework  of  naked  iron  or  steel,  and  therefore  the  whole 
of  the  metal  work  was  protected  by  concrete  or  terra-cotta 
bricks  and  tiles,  with  large  spaces  for  the  circulation  of  air. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  something  more  may  be  done 
to  introduce  the  steel  building  into  this  country,  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  to  give  an  impetus  to  the  steel  trade.  If 
our  own  steel-makers  would  take  a  leaf  out  of  the  Carnegie 
book  and  do  something  to  force  this  outlet  for  their  wares, 
instead  of  sitting  still  and  lamenting  their  hard  fate,  it 
would  be  better  for  themselves  and  for  the  country.  At 
present  what  little  is  being  done  here  in  this  way  appears 
to  be  mostly  in  the  handy  of  Americans.  When  I  was  at 
Homestead  last  autumn  they  had  just  closed  a  contract  to 
erect  a  big  steel  building  in  Edinburgh  for  the  Scotsman. 

The  energy  with  which  Americans  "  make  "  business 
is  remarkable.  Steel-makers  are  always  trying  to  force 
people  to  use  steel  ;  they  manufacture  markets  out  of 
nothing.  If  an  architect  says  he  cannot  put  steel  in  place 
of  wood,  the  steel-maker  employs  an  expert  to  show  it  can 
be  done.  He  does  not  sit  down  and  abuse  the  architect 
for  his  want  of  enterprise,  but  sets  to  work  to  force  his 


60          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

hand.  That  is  how  the  Carnegie  staff  of  designers  of  steel 
buildings  was  called  into  existence.  Another  notable 
instance  of  the  creation  of  a  market  for  steel  is  that  of  the 
Pressed  Steel  Car  Works,  which  has  been  established  to 
produce  railway  wagons  on  the  Schoen  system.  A  little 
more  than  three  years  ago  not  one  pressed  steel  car  was  to 
be  seen  on  any  railroad,  whilst  at  the  time  of  writing 
15,000  are  in  use.  The  business  was  started  in  1889  in 
a  comparatively  small  way ;  the  different  works  of  the  com- 
pany will  now  produce  130  cars  a  day.  Their  chief  difficulty 
is  at  present  to  get  steel.  The  management  thinks  itself 
fortunate  in  having  made  a  contract,  extending  over  a  long 
term  of  years,  with  the  Carnegie  Company  for  the  delivery 
of  30,000  tons  of  steel  a  month,  or  about  a  thousand  tons 
a  day,  including  Sundays.  This,  however,  is  but  a  part  of 
the  needs  of  the  company,  for  according  to  the  present 
demand  for  cars  they  could  work  up  1,500  tons  of  steel  a 
day  if  they  could  get  it.  The  factory  at  Allegheny  City 
covers  24  acres,  and  has  a  capacity  of  50  to  60  cars  a  day, 
the  latter  figure  having  been  reached.  On  March  1,  1899, 
they  purchased  a  farm  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river, 
and  by  the  beginning  of  October  of  the  same  year  had  con- 
verted it  into  a  pressed  steel  car  factory  larger  than  the 
one  first  built,  its  output  being  75  cars  a  day.  Both  these 
factories  are  most  elaborately  fitted  with  steam  and 
hydraulic  machinery,  compressed-air  plant,  and  a  very 
complete  equipment  of  electric  cranes.  The  latter  run  at 
high  speeds,  the  overhead  travellers  being  capable  of 
taking  up  a  complete  car  and  whisking  it  from  end  to  end 
of  the  shops  at  300ft.  a  minute. 

The  Atbara  bridge  created  so  much  excitement  that  I 
naturally  visited  the  Pencoyd  Works,  near  Philadelphia, 
where  that  much-discussed  structure  was  made.  It  will 
perhaps  be  remembered  that  in  England  it  was  considered 
impossible  for  this  bridge  to  be  produced  in  the  time  that 
elapsed  between  the  giving  of  the  order  and  its  execution. 
One  can  easily  understand  that  those  who  held  this  view 
considered  they  had  unimpeachable  ground  for  their 


STRUCTURAL   STEEL   WORK.  61 

statements  if  they  took  the  resources  at  the  command  of  a 
good  many  bridge  construction  works  as  their  standard. 
The  Pencoyd  Works,  however,  are  not  ordinary  bridge 
works,  even  for  America.  I  was  assured  by  Mr.  Perceval 
Eoberts,  the  head  of  the  firm,  that  there  was  nothing  very 
extraordinary  in  the  execution  of  the  order,  and  that  it 
was  not  true,  as  had  been  stated,  that  a  bridge  in  pro- 
gress had  been  diverted  from  its  original  destination.  It 
is,  however,  unnecessary  to  reopen  the  controversy  on  the 
Atbara  bridge.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  English 
contractors  appear  to  have  been  put  at  a  disadvantage  by 
the  action  of  the  purchasing  authorities  ;  but,  what  is  more 
to  our  purpose,  the  American  firm  accomplished  what  some 
of  our  engineers  deemed  simply  an  impossibility. 

At  Pencoyd  they  work  continuously  in  ten  hours' 
shifts  by  day  and  12  hours'  shifts  at  night  and  use 
170,000  tons  of  steel  a  year,  to  supply  which  they  have 
eleven  30  to  35  ton  open-hearth  furnaces.  There  is  also 
a  Wellman  tilting-furnace,  a  very  remarkable  invention, 
the  arrangement  being  such  that  the  whole  furnace  can  be 
partially  revolved,  and  the  70  tons  of  molten  steel  poured 
out,  as  one  would  pour  tea  from  a  tea-cup.  This  tilting- 
furnace  is  a  comparatively  new  invention  which  appears  to 
be  gaining  ground  rapidly  in  America.  The  Wellman- 
Seaver  electric  charging  machine  is  used  here  for  the  open- 
hearth  furnaces,  and  does  much  to  facilitate  operations  and 
save  labour — indeed,  the  manner  in  which  labour  is 
economized  throughout  in  the  melting-house,  the  rolling 
mill,  and  the  erecting  shops  goes  far  to  account  for  the 
quickness  with  which  work  is  turned  out,  and  this  rapidity 
is,  in  itself,  a  great  source  of  economy  in  production. 
Electricity  plays  a  very  important  part  in  supplying  power 
for  the  various  operations.  The  works  are  laid  out  so  that 
from  the  time  the  raw  iron  is  delivered  at  one  end  until  it 
emerges  at  the  other  in  the  shape  of  bridges,  &c.,  it  is 
always  moving  forward,  as  each  link  in  the  chain  of  con- 
struction is  forged.  That,  of  course,  is  a  recognized  prin- 
ciple of  good  workshop  arrangement,  but  recognized 


62         AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

principles  are  not  always  followed.  The  rolling  mills  for 
producing  the  different  sections  of  steel  used  in  bridge 
and  constructive  work  are  thoroughly  well  equipped.  The 
absence  of  men  round  the  mill  is  a  noticeable  feature  here 
as  in  other  American  steelworks. 

The  feature  of  American  practice  worth  nothing  is 
followed  here.  When  it  is  needed  to  change  rolls  the  whole 
machine,  rolls  and  housings,  is  removed  by  an  overhead 
travelling  crane.  In  this  way  rolls  can  be  changed  and 
work  resumed  in  1J  hour.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the 
electrically-driven  crane  used  for  this  purpose  is  one  of 
very  great  power,  and,  therefore,  an  extremely  costly 
machine.  It  is  a  striking  example  of  the  high  value 
Americans  place  upon  time  and  labour,  and  the  way  they 
appear  to  lavish  capital  expenditure  to  serve  their  ends  in 
this  respect.  In  the  roughing  mill  the  piece  being  worked 
is  lifted  between  the  presses  by  hinged  hydraulic  tables, 
whilst  the  horizontal  movements  are  electrically  carried 
out,  so  no  human  labour  is  needed. 

There  are  other  features  in  the  mill  for  saving  labour 
and  hastening  work,  but  we  must  pass  to  the  ground 
between  the  rolling  mill  and  the  bridge  shop,  where  the 
rolled  sections,  beams,  &c.,  are  collected.  The  orderly 
arrangement  here  and  the  excellent  transporting  ap- 
pliances account  for  a  good  deal  of  the  economy  of  time, 
which  is  one  of  the  leading  features  of  these  works.  Every 
part  of  this  stockyard  is  commanded  by  an  electric  crane, 
whilst  the  beams.  &c.,  rest  on  electrically-driven  "  live  " 
rollers,  which  will  thus  transport  them  to  any  part  without 
labour.  The  bridge  shop,  where  the  parts  are  made  up  to 
form  the  finished  structures,  is  a  building  460ft.  long  and 
200ft.  wide,  of  one  floor.  The  roof  is  a  remarkable  piece 
of  work,  consisting  of  deep  trusses  extending  over  the 
200ft.  from  wall  to  wall,  but  further  supported  by  eight 
wrought-iron  columns  placed  longitudinally  down  the 
centre.  The  roof,  however,  is  only  incidentally  a  roof  ;  it 
is  chiefly  an  enormous  gantry  to  support  the  ways  for 
electric  overhead  cranes  which  travel  across  or  up  and 


STRUCTURAL   STEEL   WORK.  63 

down  the  shop  so  as  to  command  every  part  of  the  floor. 
These  lifts  and  cranes  are  of  different  descriptions  and  range 
from  a  quick-running  one-ton  hoist  to  a  60-ton  traveller. 
On  the  tools  in  the  bridge  shop  a  long  chapter  might  be 
written,  but  only  one  or  two  of  the  most  striking  machines 
can  be  mentioned  here.  There  is  a  big  multiple  punching 
machine  which  will  make  ten  holes  at  a  stroke.  The 
chief  feature  is  that  the  holes  may  be  spaced  any  distance 
apart  up  to  8in.  by  shifting  the  punches,  and  this  can  be 
done  by  simply  moving  an  index.  There  is  a  description 
of  this  remarkable  machine,  which  was  made  by  William 
Sellars  and  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  in  Engineering  of 
November  24, 1899.  What  has  been  said  will  be  sufficient 
to  give  an  idea  of  how  such  a  machine  will  expedite  work 
when  irregularly  spaced  holes  have  to  be  punched,  as 
compared  to  an  ordinary  punch  worked  with  a  template. 
Another  hole-making  equipment  that  I  cannot  resist  men- 
tioning consists  of  three  lattice-work  gantries  which  will 
traverse  along  the  shop  on  rails  laid  on  the  floor.  On  a  top 
lattice-work  girder  is  mounted  an  electric  motor  which 
actuates,  through  chain  gearing,  eight  radial-arm  drilling 
machines.  There  is  room  to  place  side  by  side  for  drilling 
four  deep  girders  between  the  uprights  of  the  machine. 
There  is  a  hundred-ton  hydraulic  riveter  which  has  an 
electric  travelling  gantry  for  carrying  the  work  through  it. 
The  pneumatic  tools  are  also  of  interest,  as  well  as  the 
system  by  which  they  are  supplied  with  compressed  air. 
Most  of  the  machine  tools  are  electrically  driven,  the  more 
important  by  their  own  motors  and  the  smaller  ones  have 
a  motor  common  to  a  group.  There  are  over  200  electric 
motors  on  the  works,  the  current  for  which  is  generated  in 
a  central  station.  A  point  to  be  noticed  is  that  the  storage 
yard  is  served  by  two  40-ton  electric  travelling  cranes,  each 
of  60ft.  span,  and,  as  the  gantries  extend  over  the  lines  of 
both  the  Pennsylvania  and  of  the  Philadelphia  and  Read- 
ing Railroads,  it  will  be  easily  understood  how  little  time  is 
lost  in  loading. 

The  Berlin  Iron  Bridge  Works,  which  are  situated  at 


64          AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

Berlin,  Connecticut,  are  as  remarkable  in  many  respects 
as  the  Pencoyd  Works.  I  was  first  attracted  to  them  by 
seeing  in  Berlin  proper,  that  is,  in  the  German  capital,  a 
large  iron  foundry  which  had  been  made  at  the  Connecti- 
cut works  and  shipped  across  the  Atlantic.  Now  the 
Germans  have  themselves  made  good  progress  in  their 
steel-making  practice  and  are  accounted  to  work  cheaply  ; 
moreover,  they  are  close  buyers  and  patriotic,  getting  all 
they  can  in  their  own  country.  I  was,  therefore,  a  good 
deal  interested  in  seeing  works  which  could  manufacture 
such  a  heavy  thing  as  an  iron  foundry,  pay  railway  freight 
on  it  from  the  middle  of  Connecticut  to  a  seaport,  pay 
freight  across  the  Atlantic  and  then  again  further  carriage 
from  Hamburg  to  Berlin,  and  yet  compete  successfully 
with  the  Grerman  makers.  The  matter  is  more  surprising 
as  Connecticut  is  not  a  steel-making  State,  and  the  Berlin 
Company  have  to  bring  plates,  angles,  and  other  sections 
from  a  considerable  distance.  I  asked  Mr.  Sage,  the 
manager,  to  what  he  chiefly  attributed  his  success  in 
securing  foreign  orders.  He  thought  it  was  principally 
due  to  making  a  study  of  the  needs  of  their  customers. 
"  We  must  do  it,"  he  said,  "  or  we  could  not  live  out  here 
in  Connecticut."  For  foundry  work,  for  instance,  though 
they  have  no  foundry  of  their  own,  there  is  a  special 
department,  under  the  control  of  an  expert  foundryman, 
engaged  solely  in  designing  iron  foundry  buildings.  The 
result  is  that,  if  the  company  are  told  how  many  castings 
of  a  given  type  are  to  be  produced,  they  will  supply  a 
foundry  laid  out  for  the  purpose.  Accumulated  experience, 
with  a  large  number  of  similar  works,  must  necessarily 
enable  them  to  make  a  design  that  would  include  the 
latest  and  best  practice. 

This  plan  of  employing  experts  for  designing  special 
plants  and  special  factories  is  a  great  feature  in  the  United 
States,  and  is  worthy  of  attention.  The  Americans  appear 
to  be  specializing  in  quite  a  different  direction  to  our- 
selves. We  have  our  Great  George-street  magnates  for 
designing  bridges,  roofs,  &c.,  and  the  contractor,  in  theory, 


STRUCTURAL   STEEL   WORK.  o:> 

has  simply  to  follow  drawings  and  specifications.  In  Ame- 
rica there  are  a  certain  number  of  designing  engineers, 
but  the  work  is  far  more  in  the  hands  of  men  who  have 
had  wide  experience  in  the  execution  of  work.  Therefore 
practice  and  theory — using  the  terms  in  their  conven- 
tional sense — go  more  often  hand  in  hand.  I  think  the 
example  we  had  in  this  country,  not  long  since,  of  the 
design  of  an  important  bridge  being  recast  by  the  con- 
tractor's engineer  because  it  would  have  been  impossible 
to  erect  it  as  originally  planned,  could  not  occur  in 
America.  In  Westminster  there  are  civil  engineers  who  will 
design  a  whole  railway  in  their  office  ;  bridges,  stations, 
permanent  way,  locomotives,  carriages — in  fact  everything ; 
and  ill  fares  the  impertinent  contractor  who  suggests  that 
any  detail  is  capable  of  improvement.  The  consequence 
is  that  such  designs  are  not  designs  at  all,  they  are  merely 
copies  of  former  practice — methods  and  details  pieced 
together  to  suit  the  occasion  as  well  as  may  be  ;  and  thus 
progress  is  checked  and  the  foreign  contractor  gets  a  footing. 
On  the  other  hand  the  British  contractor,  not  being 
consulted,  will  not  consult.  He  has  to  produce  exactly 
what  he  is  told,  be  it  good  or  bad,  and  he  seeks  compensa- 
tion in  producing  it  in  exactly  his  own  way.  Let  us 
imagine  a  case  in  machine-shop  practice  by  way  of 
illustration.  A  locomotive  maker  may  be  planing  his  con- 
necting rods,  but  a  maker  of  stationary  engines  has  found 
it  is  better  to  machine  connecting  rods  by  milling.  But 
the  locomotive  maker  will  neither  seek  nor  accept  advice 
and  goes  on  planing.  That  is  a  crude  instance,  but  it  is 
British  ;  grossly  British,  no  doubt.  It  is  the  sort  of  thing 
upon  which  we  rather  pride  ourselves,  but  the  qualities 
which  held  Ladysmith  are  not  all  that  are  needed  for  com- 
mercial success.  The  American  is  different.  He  sends  a 
connecting  rod  to  the  machine  toolmaker  and  says,  "  Can 
you  design  me  a  machine  for  this  work,  and,  if  so,  how 
many  will  it  turn  out  per  week,  and  with  what  labour  ?" 
He  knows  the  toolmaker  has  wide  experience  of  what  is 
being  done  in  dozens  of  other  shops  in  kindred  branches, 

E 


66          AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

and  he  recognizes  that  all  knowledge  of  the  subject  is  not 
concentrated  in  his  own  brain.  So  it  is  that  in  the  offices 
of  the  best  machine  toolmakers  in  America  one  will  find 
quite  a  collection  of  curiosities — bits  of  engines,  valves, 
cocks,  boiler  fittings,  cycle  components,  all  manner  of 
domestic  appliances,  parts  of  ladies'  dress  furniture,  fire- 
arms, hand  tools,  and  dozens  of  other  things.  Although 
we  have  in  England  a  larger  and  more  influential  class  of 
engineers  who  sell  only  advice,  I  think,  on  the  whole,  very 
much  more  advice  is  sought  in  America.  The  broad 
difference  is  that  British  advice  is  manufactured  largely 
in  offices  unconnected  with  works  ;  in  America  it  is  chiefly 
the  product  of  the  workshop. 

After  dealing  with  the  Pencoyd  Works  I  do  not  pro- 
pose to  refer  to  the  plant  of  the  Berlin  Bridge  Company 
beyond  saying  that  it  is  excellent  in  all  respects,  the 
machinery  being  admirably  planned  and  of  the  most 
modern  description.  The  organization  for  keeping  track 
of  drawings  and  of  the  large  stock  of  steel  always  in  hand 
has  been  most  carefully  thought  out.  Moreover,  the 
checking  of  measurements  and  calculations  is  so  well 
looked  after  that  work  is  never  erected  before  leaving  the 
yard,  and  the  different  members  of  a  bridge  in  building  do 
not  come  together  until  they  are  on  the  site.  The  Berlin 
foundry,  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  went  together 
like  a  child's  puzzle,  without  a  hole  having  to  be  drilled 
on  the  spot.  A  day  or  two  before  I  visited  these  works 
there  was  an  account  in  the  papers  of  a  railway  bridge 
accident.  A  heavy  goods  train  had  left  the  rails  on  a 
bridge  and  so  injured  one  of  the  members  as  to  render  the 
structure  unsafe.  The  bridge  was  one  of  the  Berlin  Com- 
pany's construction  and  the  accident  happened  in  the 
afternoon.  Word  was  telegraphed  to  the  company,  and  45 
minutes  after  receiving  the  message  a  template  for  the 
new  work  was  made.  A  member  to  replace  the  injured 
one  was  sent  off  by  a  fast  train,  and,  by  dint  of  working  by 
the  electric  light  all  night,  the  bridge  was  ready  for  traffic 
again  the  morning  following  the  accident, 


LOCOMOTIVES.  67 

This  company  employ  day  labour,  piece-work  not  being 
the  practice.  They  have,  however,  an  efficient  system  of 
checking  work  turned  out  by  means  of  cards,  and  if  there 
is  any  slacking  off  the  foreman  is  held  responsible,  a 
foreman  who  cannot  keep  up  to  the  standard  not  being  con- 
sidered fit  for  the  post.  The  system  acts  well,  although 
work  is  carried  on  continuously,  there  being  a  day  and  a 
night  shift,  each  often  hours. 


JUNE  1,  1900. 
IX.— LOCOMOTIVES. 

Few  incidents  have  caused  more  excitement  in  the  in- 
dustrial world  than  the  purchase  last  year  of  American 
locomotives  for  the  Midland  Kailway.  The  circumstances 
which  led  to  this  transaction  were  exceptional,  no  doubt, 
but  whatever  allowances  are  made  the  matter  remains  not 
of  a  satisfactory  nature  for  British  engineering  industry. 

Discussions  innumerable  have  taken  place  in  the  engi- 
neering Press  and  elsewhere  on  the  respective  merits  of 
British  and  American  locomotives,  and  the  question  is  far 
too  thorny  to  be  broached  with  safety  in  these  articles.  It 
may,  however,  be  said  that  the  American  locomotive  is 
chiefly  differentiated  from  the  British  locomotive  by  the 
following  characteristics.  It  has  bar  frames  in  place  of  plate 
frames,  as  with  us.  It  has  outside  cylinders,  whereas  most 
of  our  powerful  long-journey  engines  have  inside  cylinders 
— that  is  to  say,  the  cylinders  in  the  latter  case  are  placed 
inside  the  frames  and  beneath  the  boiler.  There  are, 
however,  a  very  large  number  of  outside  cylinder  engines 
in  use  in  England,  a  familiar  example  being  the  locomo- 
tives on  the  underground  railway.  It  will  of  course  be  re- 
membered that  all  early  locomotives  were  of  this  type. 
There  are  other  broad  characteristics  that  may  be  men- 
tioned. For  instance,  the  United  States  engineers  use 
steel  plates  for  their  inside  fire-boxes  ;  we  use  copper. 
The  Americans  give  a  higher  centre  of  gravity  than  we  do, 
though  British  practice  has  more  closely  approximated  to 


68          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING   COMPETITION. 

that  of  America  in  this  respect  of  late,  and  the  same  is 
broadly  true  of  the  application  of  the  bogie- truck,  although 
British  engineers  have  long  used  this  device  to  a  very  con- 
siderable extent,  and  it  was,  indeed,  an  English  invention. 

The  systems  of  both  countries  have  their  undoubted 
advantages.  In  England  locomotive  frames  are  composed 
of  plates  of  steel  about  lin.  thick  or  more,  suitably 
shaped  and  disposed  in  vertical  planes  so  as  to  give  con- 
siderable rigidity.  These  frames  may  each  be  either 
double  or  single.  The  frames  of  a  typical  American  loco- 
motive are  approximately  square  and  from  Sin.  to  4in.  in 
section.  In  some  cases  there  are  upper  and  lower  mem- 
bers for  a  part  of  the  length,  whilst  in  others  the  double 
bar  extends  the  whole  length.  The  bar  frame  was,  I 
believe,  also  an  English  invention.  The  outside  cylinders 
allow  plain  straight  axles  to  be  used  for  the  driving  wheels, 
thus  doing  away  with  that  most  difficult  and  expensive 
part  of  the  locomotive,  the  crank  axle.  In  the  American 
engine,  the  cylinder  being  outside  the  wheels,  the  con- 
necting rod  takes  hold  of  a  pin  on  the  outside  of  the 
driving  wheel,  whereas  with  inside  cylinder  engines  the 
connecting  rod  must  drive  the  axle,  which  must  there- 
fore have  two  cranks  in  it.  The  inside  cylinder  arrange- 
ment is  theoretically  the  more  perfect,  but  the  outside 
cylinders  give  more  room  for  the  working  parts,  and 
render  the  mechanism  more  accessible. 

The  most  conspicuous  difference  between  British 
and  American  locomotives  is,  however,  in  the  general 
finish.  Those  produced  in  this  country  are  really  magni- 
ficent examples  of  mechanical  engineering.  "  They  are 
fit,"  as  an  American  railway  engineer  once  said,  "  to  hang 
on  a  lady's  watch  chain,  if  they  were  only  a  little 
smaller."  Moreover,  they  are  admirably  kept  up.  The 
average  American  locomotive  is  not  quite  like  this.  Com- 
pared with  its  English  brother  it  is  a  sombre  thing,  with 
no  unnecessary  expenditure  on  ornamental  finish  ;  unless, 
indeed,  in  some  cases  it  is  superfluously  ornate.  British 
locomotives  appear  substantial,  compact,  and  convey  the 


LOCOMOTIVES.  69 

impression  of  being  "  well  groomed  "  ;  American  engines 
are  impressive  from  their  height  and  size  generally,  but 
they  seem  to  English  eyes  ungainly  and  ill-knit.  Those 
who  know  their  power  and  immense  capacity  for  hauling 
loads  cannot  but  respect  them.  If  there  is  no  sacrifice 
made  to  appearance,  in  shape  of  bright  work  and  polished 
brass,  the  working  parts  are  excellent  fits  and  are  inter- 
changeable with  similar  parts  on  other  engines,  being 
made  with  special  tools  of  precision.  A  characteristic  of 
the  modern  American  locomotive  is  its  remarkably  easy 
running.  By  the  kindness  of  the  executive  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Kailroad  Company  I  was  able  to  ride  on  the 
engine  of  the  Chicago  limited  express,  a  train  celebrated 
throughout  the  railway  world,  and  can  bear  testimony  to 
its  smooth  running  at  very  high  speeds,  in  this  respect 
unequalled  so  far  as  my  experience  goes. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  be  gathered  that,  in 
competing  with  British-made  locomotives  in  neutral  mar- 
kets, the  American  system  gives  the  maker  a  considerable 
advantage  in  the  matter  of  price.  So  far  as  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  are  concerned,  it  may  be  said  that 
each  type  is  well  suited  for  its  respective  field,  but  when 
we  come  to  those  neutral  markets  where  locomotives  are 
most  likely  to  be  imported  we  see  that  the  British  maker, 
who  sticks  with  British  pertinacity  to  his  own  home  ideals, 
is  likely  to  go  to  the  wall.  New  countries,  our  colonies 
for  instance,  have  railways  more  approximating  to  the 
earlier  roads  of  America  than  to  the  solid  constructions  of 
our  own  land.  It  has  been  more  than  whispered  that,  in 
the  past,  British  makers  have  shown  what  might  be  de- 
scribed as  obstinacy  rather  than  pertinacity.  They  have 
been  apt  to  think  themselves  masters  of  the  situation  and 
tell  their  customers  exactly  what  they  proposed  to  supply 
rather  than  consult  their  wishes.  "  We  make  only  good 
engines  ;  turn  out  nothing  but  high-class  work,"  they  have 
said.  "  That  is  what  we  consider  a  good,  substantial  loco- 
motive, and  if  you  want  anything  else  you  had  better  go 
elsewhere."  Foreign  customers  have  taken  this  advice, 


70          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING  COMPETITION. 

getting,  perhaps,  an  engine  not  so  bright,  not  so  good  look- 
ing, not  so  economical  in  fuel,  but  one  which  may  have  cost 
less  and  which  undoubtedly  hauled  big  loads  over  roads 
that  were  as  different  from  our  splendidly  laid  and 
tunnelled  lines  as  a  New  York  street  is  to  a  Parisian 
boulevard. 

The  extent  of  the  "  going  elsewhere  "  on  the  part  of 
the  foreign  purchasers  of  locomotives  is  given  in  the  official 
import   and  export   tables    of  England  and  America  re- 
spectively.    In  1889  the  United  States  exported  144  loco- 
motives, and  in    1898   the  number  had  risen  to  468,  and 
this    in    spite    of   a    home    demand  that  has   lately  been 
surprising  in  its  magnitude.     In  our  own  returns  numbers 
are  not  taken  into  account,   so   we   must  have  recourse 
to  values.     In   1889  we  exported  nearly  a  million  and  a 
half  pounds'  worth  of  locomotives   (£1,443,615),   and   in 
1898  approximately   the  same  quantity.      Probably    our 
total  for  1899  will  turn  out  a  little   less.      The   American 
values    for   these    two   years    respectively    were    about   a 
quarter  of  a  million  sterling  and  considerably  over  three- 
quarters  of  a  million.     It   will  be   seen,  therefore,  that, 
whilst   the  value  of  our  foreign  trade  in  locomotives  has 
not  advanced  during  10  years,  that  of  America  has  increased 
threefold.     It  may  be  stated  that  the  American  return  for 
1898  exceeded  our  figure   for   1894  and  almost  equalled 
that  of  1895.     In  1898  the  United  States  sent  more  loco- 
motives, or  rather  the  value  thereof,  than  we  did  to  the 
following  countries — to  Eussia   (four  times  as  much),  to 
Canada  (which  took  none  from   us),  to  Mexico,  to  Brazil, 
and  to  Japan.     The  Japanese  have   been  great  buyers  of 
locomotives  of  late,  being  the  best  customers  both  to  us 
and  to  the  United   States  respectively  ;    British  makers 
having  exported  to  the  extent  of  £206,488,  and   American 
makers  £260,000.     On  the  other  hand,  we  sent  during  the 
same  year  locomotives  to  the  value  of  £138,570  to  the 
Argentine  Kepublic,  the  United   States  not  exporting  to 
that    country   a   single    engine.     Our  possessions  in  the 
East,  however,  contribute  chiefly  to  the  excess  of  our  total 


LOCOMOTIVES.  71 

exports  over  those  of  the  United  States,  for  we  supplied  the 
Indian  Empire  with  locomotives  to  the  value  of  £452,279, 
whilst  the  Americans  sent  less  than  £3,000  worth. 

Still,  at  the  present   time,   Great   Britain   leads  the 
world  in  its  foreign  trade   in    locomotives  ;    but   it   will  be 
seen  that  we  do  not  hold  our  supremacy  on  a  very  certain 
footing,  for  one  of  our  annual  totals  has    already  been  ex- 
ceeded by  an  American  total,  though  not  in  the  same  year. 
It  is,  however,  somewhat  remarkable  and,  in  some  respects, 
not  a  little  creditable  to  the  British  makers  that  they  hold 
their  own  as  well  as  they  have  done,  for  they  have  not  the 
same  advantages  as  the  makers  in  the  United  States.     As 
is  well  known,  the  chief  British    railway  companies   have 
extensive  shops  for  the   manufacture   of  railway  engines, 
thus  doing  a  large  part  of  their  own  work.     In  the  United 
States  the  same  conditions   do    not   prevail,   the  railroad 
companies  as  a  whole   more   largely   depending  for  their 
supply  on  the  locomotive  firms.     The  most  notable  excep- 
tion is  that  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company,  which 
has    most    admirably    arranged    shops   at  Altoona.      The 
American  private  firms  do,   therefore,   an  enormous  trade, 
and,  what  is  of  even  more  importance,  the  demand  is  fairly 
constant.       Our   own  export    trade   is   of    a     fluctuating 
character,  as  will   be    seen   by  the  figures  already  quoted, 
and,  unfortunately  for  our   locomotive    makers,   the  home 
demand  is    apt   to   ebb   and    flow    in    unison    with  the 
foreign  trade.     The  year    1899    is   an  example,  for,  while 
the  foreign  demand  has  been  comparatively  high, the  home 
railways  have  been  asking  contractors  for  more  locomotives 
than  they  could  supply.     The  consequence   has  been  im- 
portation of  American-built  engines   into   England,  whilst 
we  are   sending  large  numbers    of  British-built  engines 
abroad.     The   position  is    unfortunate.      The   locomotive 
makers  say  demand  fluctuates  to  such  an  extent  that  they 
cannot  keep  their  men    together   in   dull  times  so  as  to  be 
able  to  execute  orders  for  a  rush.     Moreover,  they   do  not 
feel  inclined  to  invest  an  increased  amount  of  capital  in 
costly   machinery,    buildings,   and   appliances,   when  the 


72-         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

money  would  so  often  be  unproductive,  the  machinery 
lying  idle.  "  If,"  they  say,  "  we  had  more  of  the  home 
railway  supply  in  our  hands,  it  would  act  as  a  fly-wheel  to 
the  trade,  and  fluctuations  would  bear  a  smaller  ratio  to 
the  total  demand."  It  is  also  complained  that  railway 
companies  put  off  making  purchases  unduly,  and  in  this 
way  the  locomotive  stock  is  let  down  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  has  to  be  renewed  with  a  rush. 

It  will  be  evident  from  what  has  been  previously  said 
that  the  locomotive  building  firms  in  the  United  States 
have  a  great  advantage  over  those  of  our  own  country,  and 
this  is  apparent  in  the  size  of  their  works.  The  most 
noted  is  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works,  which  are  situated 
in  the  centre  of  Philadelphia.  When  I  visited  this 
establishment  ten  years  ago  they  were  turning  out  three 
locomotives  a  day.  Their  present  output  exceeds  even 
this  figure,  whilst  close  on  seven  thousand  men  are  finding 
employment  in  the  shops.  By  the  courtesy  of  the  pro- 
prietors I  spent  the  greater  part  of  three  days  in  these 
works,  having  freedom  to  go  anywhere,  see  anything,  and 
ask  any  questions  I  pleased — meeting,  in  fact,  with  that 
hospitality  and  liberal  treatment  which  are  so  constantly 
extended  to  Englishmen  in  the  United  States.  To 
transcribe  my  notes  would  take  far  more  space  than  could 
be  accorded  to  the  subject,  even  if  they  were  not  entirely 
too  technical  for  general  reading,  but  perhaps  a  few  of  the 
more  salient  features  may  be  given. 

In  the  vast  erecting  shop  there  is  room  for  79  loco- 
motive engines  to  be  in  process  of  being  put  together  at 
once,  and  as  the  works  were  in  full  swing  it  may  be  con- 
cluded that  approximately  that  number  were  in  progress. 
The  first  thing  that  would  strike  an  Englishman  here 
would  be  the  absence  of  erecting  pits,  the  work  being  all 
done  on  the  ground  level.  It  gives  a  somewhat  untidy 
appearance  to  the  shop,  and  this  is  increased  by  the 
uncouth  look  of  the  enormous  engines,  with  boilers  reared 
high  above  the  frames.  Compared,  for  instance,  to  such 
a  model  of  orderliness  as  the  erecting  department  of  the 


LOCOMOTIVES.  73 

Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  Railway  at  Horwich, the  American 
shop  does  not  give  a  favourable  impression  at  the  first 
glance.  The  second  impression  the  mind  of  the  English 
engineer  would  receive  would  probably  be  that  of  the  wonder- 
ful facility  with  which  the  work  is  carried  on  by  means  of 
the  lifting  appliances  in  the  department  ;  and  he  would 
soon  perceive  that  these  prevent  any  lack  of  orderly 
arrangement — or,  rather,  what  might  appear  such — from 
checking  the  progress  of  work.  Notable  among  these 
appliances  are  two  splendid  electric  cranes  which  traverse 
the  entire  length  of  the  building,  and  each  of  which  has 
a  lifting  power  of  100  tons.  These  powerful  travelling 
bridges  have  a  span  of  74ft.  8in.  each,  and  each  one  will 
pick  up  one  of  the  big  American  locomotives  as  soon  as  it 
is  finished  and  carry  it,  suspended  in  mid-air,  right  down 
the  shop,  over  the  heads  of  others  in  progress.  In  the 
meantime,  by  other  cranes,  the  separate  members  of  a  new 
engine  are  being  brought  to  the  vacant  space  before  the 
completed  one  is  well  out  of  sight.  Whilst  the  bridge  of 
the  crane  is  travelling  200ft.  a  minute  on  the  run  way,  or 
longitudinally  down  the  shop,  the  trolly,  or  winch  carriage, 
can  be  cross-traversed  on  the  bridge  100ft.  a  minute,  and 
the  lifting  operation  or  vertical  motion  can  be  carried  on 
at  40ft.  a  minute.  These  are  remarkable  speeds. 

The  executive  officers  of  these  works  pride  themselves 
on  a  system  they  have  formulated  by  which  orders  can  be 
quickly  executed,  and  by  no  means  a  small  part  of  the 
strength  of  the  business  lies  in  this  fact,  so  improvident 
are  railway  managers.  On  the  occasion  of  my  visit  the 
last  of  an  order  for  nine  engines  had  recently  been 
despatched.  These  had  been  wanted  in  a  great  hurry,  and 
special  pains  were  taken  to  finish  them  within  the  specified 
time,  which  was  14  days  from  receipt  of  order.  The  first 
shipment  of  two  was  made  within  ten  days,  and  the  others 
were  all  delivered  in  the  time  named.  As  the  shops  were 
all  extremely  busy  there  was  no  material  in  stock,  but  the 
engines  were  of  a  design  previously  worked  to,  so  that 
drawings  had  not  to  be  made.  Plates  of  required  size  for 


71          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

boilers'were  ordered  by  telegraph.  A  man  was  sent  off  by 
the  next  train  to  see  that  no  mistake  was  made  and  to  carry 
out  the  usual  tests.  All  boilerplates,  it  may  be  added,  are 
drilled  to  pattern  in  accordance  with  a  definite  system.  A 
word  should  be  said  about  those  who  go  out  to  inspect 
work  in  progress.  They  are  picked  men,  as  it  is  considered 
that  quick  delivery — always  a  feature  of  supreme  import- 
ance in  America — largely  depends  on  their  exertions. 
They  not  only  have  to  see  that  the  materials  comply  with 
the  specification,  but  also  to  take  care  that  the  firm's  work 
gets  its  fair  turn,  that  it  is  not  unduly  put  on  one  side  to 
favour  other  orders.  The  inspector  is  not  paid  by  results, 
but  he  feels  that  his  chance  of  advancement  depends  on 
his  ability  and  diligence,  because  he  knows  that  the 
management  thinks  no  time  or  pains  wasted  that  are  spent 
in  searching  out  the  best  men  for  the  highest  positions. 
No  matter  who  the  man  may  be,  he  knows  that  a  place  in 
the  firm  is  waiting  for  him  if  he  can  prove  himself  worthy 
to  fill  it,  and  opportunity  for  proof  is  afforded  throughout, 
step  by  step,  no  matter  whether  he  begins  as  labourer  in 
the  works  or  messenger  boy  in  the  office.  He  is  sure  of  this 
because  he  sees  his  superiors  have  all  been  chosen,  not 
because  of  money,  or  family  interest,  but  just  because  they 
were  the  fittest  men  to  do  the  work  that  had  to  be  done- 
These  are  points  that  cannot  be  too  strongly  insisted  upon 
They  are  chiefly  the  things  that  make  a  country  prosper- 
ous, and  America  has  cultivated  them  to  the  fullest  extent. 

The  system  of  working  to  jigs  and  templates  is  pretty 
generally  followed  in  British  locomotive  works,  but, 
perhaps,  hardly  as  much  as  in  those  of  the  United  States. 
Still,  the  method  is  sufficiently  well  known  not  to  need 
description.  Standard  gauges  are  also  largely  used  in 
these  shops.  These  devices  ensure  accuracy,  and  save 
time  in  the  machining  work  itself.  They  also  save  time  in 
the  erecting  operations  and  produce  a  finished  engine  with 
all  the  parts  accurately  and  firmly  put  together,  and  inter- 
changeable with  other  similar  parts  in  other  locomotives 
made  by  the  firm. 


LOCOMOTIVES.  75 

The  Baldwin  works  never  stop,  day  or  night.  The  day 
shift  works  ten  hours  and  the  night  shift  11  hours.  In 
this  way  standing  expenses,  such  as  rent,  taxes,  rates,  in- 
terest on  capita],  are  practically  halved.  Nearly  all  the 
work  is  piecework — the  men  will  have  it  so — the  night  and 
the  day  men  being  partners.  It  has  been  frequently  sug- 
gested that -double  shifts  should  be  worked  in  this  country, 
and  occasionally  this  has  been  done  under  pressure  of 
excessive  demand.  The  objection  to  the  principle  has  been 
that  it  is  impossible  to  bring  home  to  any  individual  work- 
man the  responsibility  for  bad  work  or  neglect.  The 
difficulty  of  foremen  is  also  raised.  It  is  said  one  foreman 
will  not  supervise  the  work  of  another  ;  and,  in  short,  the 
friction  would  be  so  great  that  the  plan  must  be  a  failure. 

The  answer  to  this  is  that  the  Baldwin  Locomotive 
Works,  and  many  other  establishments  in  the  United 
States  that  have  tried  it  for  years,  find  it  perfectly 
successful  ;  but,  I  must  confess,  the  spirit  of  the 
shops  is  quite  different  from  that  which  prevails  in 
Great  Britain — I  wish  I  could  say  "  which  formerly 
prevailed  "  without  reserve,  but  I  fear  I  cannot. 
Though  matters  have  improved  and  the  British  artisan 
has  learnt  much  wisdom  since  the  strike  of  two  years 
ago,  it  would  be  untrue  to  say  that  the  same  desire  to 
turn  out  work  quickly  and  cheaply  exists  in  Great  Britain 
as  it  does  in  America.  It  was  a  curious  thing  to  see  the 
Baldwin  shop  engines  running  during  the  dinner  hour,  and 
a  large  number  of  the  machines  at  work.  The  expediency 
of  such  a  practice  may  be  a  matter  of  opinion,  but  there 
can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  spirit  shown  by  the  men  when 
they  will  "  carry  on  in  their  own  time."  Such  men  do  not 
need  much  looking  after.  One  foreman  had  the  super- 
vision of  1,800  men.  The  firm  say  "  every  dollar's  worth 
of  work  we  can  get  out  of  a  tool  makes  it  so  much  the  more 
valuable";  and  the  men  say,  "  I  may  as  well  let  my  machine 
go  on  earning  money  for  me  so  long  as  I  am  here,  even  if 
I  am  eating  my  dinner  the  while."  I  spoke  to  some  of  the 
men  about  this.  The  answer  of  one  was  typical.  He  said 


76          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

it  fidgeted  him  so  that  he  -had  "  dyspepsia  trouble  "  if  his 
machine  was  not  running  while  he  was  looking  at  it.  Allow- 
ance here  must  be  made  for  the  American  characteristic  of 
conveying  an  idea  by  means  of  an  exaggeration,  a  kind  of 
native  humour  much  practised.  Another  American  once 
said  to  me  he  wondered  how  the  British  workman  could 
keep  awake  with  machine  tools  running  at  the  rate  usual 
in  England. 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  there  are  no  trade-union 
restrictions  here  as  to  the  number  of  machines  a  man  may 
look  after.  He  takes  charge  of  just  as  many  as  he  can  get 
entrusted  to  him.  With  the  system  of  piecework  in  vogue, 
there  is,  of  course,  no  opposition  to  labour-saving 
machinery.  Most  of  the  ideas  for  economizing  labour  come 
from  the  men  who  work  the  tools.  Mr.  Vauclain,  who 
takes  the  management  of  the  works,  and  who  most  kindly 
devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  to  going  round  the  shops  with 
me,  said  it  is  a  common  thing  for  a  man  working  on  a 
machine  tool  to  suggest  improvements  which  will  hasten 
work,  offering  to  do  the  job  at  a  lower  piecework  rate  if  the 
alteration  is  made.  The  man  by  increased  output  will 
make  more  money  during  the  week,  but  the  firm  will  pay 
less  for  the  work  produced.  In  fact  they  will  halve  the 
profit,  and  both  will  be  better  off.  "  But,"  said  Mr. 
Vauclain — and  I  would  especially  draw  attention  to  this— 
"  we  never  try  to  cut  the  rate  so  long  as  the  man  making 
the  improvement  keeps  at  the  job.  If  he  can  earn  very  high 
wages  we  let  him  earn  them.  We  consider  he  has  a  vested 
right  in  the  improvement."  Now  there  is  a  very  great  deal 
in  this.  If  a  man  is  allowed  to  benefit  by  a  suggestion 
only  for  a  few  weeks  or,  may  be,  months, he  feels  aggrieved 
when  he  is  put  back  to  a  piece  rate  which  brings  him  the 
original  sum  per  week,  or  perhaps  a  trifle  more,  and  one  may 
be  fairly  certain  he  will  not  go  far  out  of  his  way  to  initiate 
another  advance.  Some  British  employers,  or,  perhaps, 
rather,  their  foremen,  are  much  to  blame  in  this  respect. 

The  men  at  these  works  earn  "  good  money,"   as  the 
expression  is,  but  they  have  to  work  hard  for  it.  That  they 


STATIONARY  ENGINES.  77 

do  not  mind  ;  in  fact,  there  would  be  considerable  trouble 
if  the  firm  attempted  to  check  them.  The  money  they  take 
would  make  most  of  our  engineering  works  managers  wince, 
but  Mr.  Vauclain  is  of  opinion — in  fact,  he  is  very  certain 
— that,  piece  for  piece,  the  work  costs  his  firm  less  than 
corresponding  work  costs  in  Great  Britain. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  historical  interest  that  might 
be  said  about  these  works,  for  they  go  back  almost  to  the 
dawn  of  railway  engineering,  having  been  founded  by 
Mathias  W.  Baldwin  in  1831.  The  example  of  absorbing 
the  best  men  in  the  firm  was  early  started,  for  he  took 
Mr.  Baird,  one  of  his  foremen,  into  partnership.  Mr. 
Burnham  also  joined  the  firm,  then  Mr.  W.  P.  Henzey, 
who  had  been  chief  draughtsman,  and  then  another  fore- 
man, Mr.  Edward  Longstreth.  There  have  been  later  ex- 
amples of  the  same  kind  ;  in  fact,  the  tradition  of  the  firm 
is  to  get  able  men.  Nothing  else  counts. 

Some  notable  engines  have  been  constructed  here, 
but  of  these  I  have  not  space  to  speak.  It  may  be  stated, 
however,  that  the  building  of  locomotives  in  America  for 
England  is  not  a  new  thing,  for  in  1840  there  were  sent 
from  these  shops  four  locomotives  which  were  built  to  run 
on  what  is  now  part  of  the  Midland  Kailway.  At  the  present 
time  some  of  the  most  interesting  locomotives  being  built 
by  the  company  are  those  which  are  worked  by  electricity. 


JUNE  4,  1900. 
X.— STATIONAEY     ENGINES. 

It  has  for  some  time  past  been  known  to  well-informed 
British  engineers  that  the  manufacture  of  large  stationary 
steam  engines  has  been  increasing  to  a  very  remarkable 
degree  in  the  United  States.  This  has  also  been  brought 
before  the  general  public  by  the  instance  of  the  Glasgow 
tramways,  to  which  reference  will  be  made  later.  The 
increased  activity  is  reflected  slightly  in  the  export  busi- 
ness of  the  country,  though  manufacturers  have  been 


78          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING   COMPETITION. 

mostly  too  busy  to  seek  foreign  orders.  By  reference  to 
official  figures  it  will  be  found  that  the  exports  of  sta- 
tionary engines  from  the  United  States  have  increased 
200  per  cent,  during  the  last  ten  years.  Our  exports  have 
been  falling  away  steadily  for  some  time,  being  about  22 
per  cent,  less  in  1898  than  in  1888.  Statements  of  ratios 
are  apt  to  be  misleading,  and  it  puts  a  better  complexion 
on  the  matter  when  it  is  stated  that  we  still  sell  abroad  18 
times  as  much  in  value  of  stationary  engines  as  the 
Americans  do,  the  totals  for  1898  being — for  the  United 
Kingdom,  £1,454,928,  and  for  America  about  £80,000. 
But  these  figures  again  may  prove  as  much  too  reassuring 
as  the  percentages  were  over-depressing.  The  Americans 
have  not  hitherto  sought  foreign  trade  in  stationary 
engines.  Are  they  likely  to  do  so  in  the  future  ? 

In  order  to  form  some  idea  of  the  answer  that  should 
be  given  to  this  question  I  made  a  good  many  inquiries 
amongst  those  most  directly  interested  in  the  industry, 
and  received  but  one  reply  from  all.  It  may  be  sum- 
marized as  follows  : — "  We  shall  sell  our  engines  where 
we  find  the  best  prices  and  easiest  market.  At  present 
that  is  the  United  States  ;  but  if  demand  slackens  here 
we  shall  use  the  foreign  market  as  an  outlet  for  our  sur- 
plus product,  getting  the  best  prices  we  can.  But  we 
attach  the  greatest  importance  to  keeping  our  works  in 
lull  activity,  and  shall  be  prepared  to  accept  low  prices 
abroad  in  dull  times  in  order  to  be  ready  to  take  advantage 
of  busy  times  when  they  come."  The  attitude  of  the 
engine-maker  is  very  much  that  of  the  steel-maker,  and, 
indeed,  the  idea  of  most  manufacturers  in  the  raw  and 
manufactured  iron  trades  appears  to  be  to  sell  cheaply 
abroad — at  a  loss,  if  need  be — and  equalize  matters  by  the 
profits  on  the  home  trade.  By  some  inverted  process  of 
reasoning,  which  I  have  never  been  able  to  grasp,  this 
policy  is  held  to  be  good  for  the  country  at  large. 

The  point  British  manufacturers  have  to  consider, 
however,  is  how  the  prospective  competition  in  America 
will  affect  them  ;  not  whether  it  is  economically  sound, 


STATIONARY  ENGINES.  79 

nor  how  it  will  affect  the  American  citizen.  Will  the  pro- 
tective duties  of  the  country  enable  the  manufacturers  to 
carry  out  their  programme  ?  Shall  we,  in  the  engineer- 
ing industry,  have  a  parallel  to  the  sugar  trade,  with  its 
bounty-fed  beet  sugar  ?  The  answer  to  this  question 
obviously  depends  largely  on  the  way  in  which 
American  workshops  are  equipped  ;  and  here  I  gladly 
leave  the  slippery  platform  of  economics  for  the  surer 
ground  of  engineering  practice. 

Probably  the  most  interesting  engine  works  in 
America  to  English  engineers  are  those  of  the  Edward  P. 
Allis  Company  at  Milwaukee  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin, 
the  firm  that  has  taken  the  contract  for  the  Glasgow  tram- 
way engines.  That  an  American  works  over  1,000  miles 
from  the  nearest  seaport  on  their  side  of  the  Atlantic 
should  wrest  an  order  for  engines  of  largest  size  from  our 
foremost  engineering  firms  in  one  of  the  most  important 
centres  of  engineering  activity  came  as  a  very  big,  and 
very  unpleasant,  surprise  to  most  of  us  last  summer.  The 
controversy  that  followed  the  placing  of  the  order  will  be 
within  the  memory  of  many,  and  it  is  not  now  proposed 
to  extend  it  or  review  the  points  then  brought  forward. 

I  made  a  special  trip  to  Milwaukee,  where  the 
managers  of  the  Allis  Company  most  liberally  gave 
me  free  access  to  their  shops,  with  permission  to  find 
out  everything  I  could  as  to  the  advantages  they 
possessed  for  enabling  them  to  secure  orders  in  Europe  ; 
for  the  Glasgow  engines  will  be  by  no  means  with- 
out companions  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  In  spite 
of  this  liberal  freedom,  I  am  afraid  I  can  give  no  specific 
reason  for  the  success  of  the  firm.  In  general  terms  it 
may  be  said  that  the  plant  is  adequate  to  the  big  work 
that  is  turned  out,  and  that  special  attention  has  been 
paid  by  a  very  competent  mechanical  engineer  to  the 
design  of  large  and  powerful  engines  suited  to  driving 
electric  generators.  This  has  been  backed  by  shrewd  and 
energetic  commercial  management,  and  by  a  bold  venturing 
of  Capita! > whenever  thoughtful  consideration  gave  promise 


80          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

of  good  return,  that  is  characteristic  of  the  American  busi- 
ness man.  The  company  have  been  in  a  fortunate 
position  to  take  full  advantage  of  the  enormous  develop- 
ment of  electric  traction  that  has  occurred  in  the  United 
States  during  the  last  few  years.  The  demand  for  big 
engines  of  this  class  has  sprung  up  almost  at  a  bound. 

Everything  in  these  works  is  on  a  big  scale  ;  they 
are  laid  out  for  large  engines  and  practically  make  hardly 
any  of  the  smaller  type.  For  instance,  they  had  in  hand, 
for  one  order  alone,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  eight  pairs  of 
compound  engines,  each  to  indicate  8,000-horse  power  at 
best  economy,  or  to  be  capable  of  continuously  working 
under  a  load  of  12,000-horse  power.  These  engines 
therefore,  would  be  collectively  equal  to  doing  the  work 
of  96,000  horses,  and  I  doubt  whether  such  a  wholesale 
order  for  steam  power  has  ever  been  taken  before.  Even 
our  Powerful  and  Terrible  only  work  up  to  25,000-horse 
power.  The  engines  are  for  the  elevated  railroads  of  New 
York  and  will  be  placed  in  a  central  station  there. 
Another  big  order,  also  in  progress,  was  for  11  sets  of 
engines  for  the  electric  power  station  which  is  to  supply 
current  for  the  surface  street  railroads  of  New  York. 
These  engines  will  give  an  aggregate  maximum  horse- 
power of  77,000,  but  their  load  at  best  economy  will  be 
4,500-horse  power  each.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  at  the 
present  time  New  York  is  putting  down  for  local  passenger 
service  by  means  of  electric  traction  no  less  than  173,000- 
horse  power,  and  is  getting  the  engines  for  all  this  from  a 
firm  in  another  State  over  a  thousand  miles  away.  These 
engines  are  all  of  the  vertical  direct  coupled  type  with 
Keynolds's  Corlis  gear  and  run  about  75  revolutions  per 
minute,  although  they  may  be  driven  faster.  The  firm 
had  also  on  their  books  orders  for  34  blowing  engines. 
These  are  big  engines  and  weigh  from  400  to  G50  tons 
each,  and  giving  off  up  to  5,000  i.h.p.  One  was  for 
England,  one  for  France,  one  for  Southern  Russia,  and 
five  for  Nova  Scotia,  where  one  of  the  most  complete 
blast-furnace  plants  in  the  world  is  now  being  laid  down. 


STATION AKY  ENGINES.]  81 

Another  order  in  hand  was  for  three  engines  for  elec- 
tric traction  purposes  in  Cuba.  These  were  interesting  as 
being  similar  to  the  engines  the  firm  had  supplied,  and 
which  are  now  being  erected  at  the  Bankside  Station  of 
the  City  of  London  Electric  Lighting  Company.  Other 
engines  of  equal  size  were  in  progress  for  the  Pittsburgh 
electric  tramway  system,  the  Richmond  (Virginia),  the 
Norfolk  (Virginia),  and  the  Lynn  Massachusetts  systems. 
I  am  not  aware  of  the  size  of  the  last-named  engines,  but 
the  whole  of  the  work  in  progress  represented  an  aggre- 
gate of  power  that  has  never  been  approached  in  the  shops 
of  one  firm  for  engines  of  this  class,  and  which,  I  am 
informed,  represented  a  value  of  a  million  pounds. 

I  have  been,  since  my  visit,  furnished  with  a  list  of 
the  principal  engines  made  by  this  firm,  and  a  very  re- 
markable list  it  is.  Engines  of  large  size  have  been  sup- 
plied to  Australia,  Tasmania,  Austria,  Canada,  England, 
Ireland,  Scotland,  Germany,  Mexico,  New  Zealand,  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  South  Africa,  Argentina,  Chile,  and 
Spain  ;  whilst  others  have  been  sent  into  50  different 
States  of  the  Union  and  its  territories.  Perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  feature  in  the  list  is  the  number  of  large 
engines  supplied  to  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company,  there 
being  31  blowing  engines,  eight  rolling-mill  engines,  and 
one  air-compressing  engine. 

The  plant  of  these  works  is  on  the  scale  needed  for 
the  operations  that  have  to  be  performed,  the  machine 
tools  being  mostly,  if  not  all,  of  American  make.  Amongst 
them  may  be  mentioned  a  powerful  fly-wheel  lathe  that 
would  take  work  40ft.  in  diameter  and  lift,  between 
centres.  This  was  served  by  its  own  overhead  crane  and 
was  driven  by  an  independent  engine.  There  were  three 
large  planers  together,  each  of  which  would  take  10ft. 
square  under  the  bridge,  and  several  large  vertical  lathes, 
which  would  take  10ft.  under  the  heads  and  22ft.  in 
diameter.  A  new  one,  for  which  the  foundations  had  just 
been  put  in,  would  take  12ft.  in  height  and  turn  a  diameter 
of  24ft.  This  would  be  certainly  the  heaviest  tool  of  the 


82          AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

kind  I  have  ever  seen.  The  lifting  appliances  are  very 
complete.  In  addition  to  numerous  jib  cranes  there  are 
in  the  shops  nine  overhead  electric  travelling  cranes,  all  of 
high  speed.  One  of  these  is  50  tons,  five  are  of  30  tons, 
two  of  20  tons,  and  one  is  of  ten  tons  capacity.  In  this  way 
heavy  parts  can  be  carried  over  all  other  work  in  progress, 
and  cleared  out  of  the  way  without  interruption.  It  is  a 
point  of  which  the  value  is  generally  recognized  in  America, 
and  which  British  engineers  might  more  often  consider. 
The  shops  cover  an  area  of  22  acres.  Another  factory  has 
recently  been  acquired  in  Buffalo  in  order  to  relieve  the 
Milwaukee  establishment.  A  point  I  noticed  in  these 
works  was  the  nearness  to  finished  size  of  the  forgings 
used.  There  was  really  very  little  metal  to  be  removed 
beyond  that  required  to  make  a  proper  finish.  I  think, 
however,  the  Americans  forge  closer  to  size  than  is  usual  in 
Europe.  The  hours  of  work  here  are  from  7  to  12  and  from 
1  to  6,  or  ten  hours.  As  is  usual  in  America,  there  is  no 
wasteful  break  for  breakfast,  a  system  to  which  British 
workshops  will  have  to  come  sooner  or  later.  When  men 
come  in  at  6  the  time  spent  before  breakfast  is  more  or  less 
wasted  ;  in  a  good  many  shops  it  may  be  said  to  be 
entirely  wasted.  Whatever  the  hours  may  be,  whether 
nine  as  in  Great  Britain  or  ten  as  in  America,the  6  o'clock 
rule  with  a  break  for  breakfast  is  bad.  The  night  shift  at 
Messrs.  Allis's  work  from  6  p.m.  until  midnight  and  from 
1  a.m.  till  7  a.m.,  or  12  hours'  work,  for  which,  however, 
they  receive  13  hours'  pay.  For  the  most  part  the  men  are 
paid  day  wages,  and  not  by  the  piece. 

I  will  conclude  the  notice  of  these  works  with  an  inci- 
dent illustrative  of  the  boldness  with  which  Americans 
attack  engineering  problems.  In  1889  Messrs.  Allis  sup- 
plied the  Boston  Street  Railway  Company  with  nine  engines 
of  1,000-horse  power  each  for  actuating  electric  generators. 
These  were  to  drive  the  dynamos  by  means  of  belts  in  the 
way  considered  best  at  that  period.  By  the  year  1894  it 
had  been  found  that  direct  driving — i.e.,  without  belt-gear- 
ing— was  the  better  way,  so,  though  the  machinery  was 


STATIONARY   ENGINES.  S3 

but  five  years  old,  the  whole  station  was  remodelled  at  a 
cost  of  £100,000,  new  generators  being  provided  and  the 
engines  altered  for  direct  driving.  I  am  afraid  we  in  Eng- 
land should  have  looked  on  it  as  little  less  than  criminal 
to  throw  away  beautiful  new  machinery  almost  before  it 
had  begun  to  be  worn  out.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  am  in- 
formed, the  saving  effected  has  quite  justified  the  outlay, 
showing,  indeed,  a  very  substantial  profit. 

Other  important  engine  works  I  visited  when  in  this 
part  of  America  were  those  of  Messrs.  Fraser  and  Chalmers 
in  Chicago.  This  establishment  I  was  more  anxious  to 
see  as  the  firm  have  within  the  last  few  years  started  a 
large  factory  at  Erith,  in  Kent.  The  latter  works  were 
erected  with  a  view  to  getting  the  advantage  of  cheaper 
labour  in  England,  and  therefore,  as  it  was  supposed,  a 
lower  cost  of  production.  I  had  heard  this  expectation 
had  not  been  fulfilled,  and  I  thought,  perhaps,  I  could  find 
the  reason.  The  subject,  however,  was  one  upon  which 
the  Chicago  branch  did  not  wish  to  express  an  opinion, 
very  naturally,  perhaps  ;  but  I  found  that  it  is  considered 
that  American  makers  of  this  class  of  machinery  have  an 
advantage,  first,  in  cheaper  labour — i.e.,  cheaper  in  terms 
of  product,  not  in  time  rate  ;  secondly,  in  a  better  quality 
of  iron  ;  and  thirdly,  in  American  designs  using  less 
metal.  The  mining  machinery  made  by  this  firm  is  largely 
for  new  countries  where  transport  is  difficult ;  the  latter 
feature,  therefore,  is  of  importance.  The  Chicago  firm 
have  also  a  lower  rate  of  railway  carriage,  although,  as  they 
are  1,000  miles  from  the  sea,  that  can  hardly  be  a  ruling 
factor  for  export  orders.  They  further  attribute  a  good 
deal  of  their  success  to  the  readiness  with  which  they  pull 
old  tools  out  and  replace  them  by  new  ones  as  soon  as 
occasion  arises.  On  visiting  the  works  on  the  outskirts  of 
Chicago  I  found  them  most  admirably  arranged,  the  lift- 
ing appliances,  in  the  shape  of  electric  cranes  and  pneu- 
matic hoists,  being  especially  well  devised.  The  latter  are 
worthy  of  attention,  as  they  save  a  great  deal  of  labour. 
Throughout  the  shops  there  are  fitted  a  series  of  overhead 

F— 2 


84          AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

single  rails,  suspended  at  a  convenient  height  above  the 
machine  tools.  Hanging  from  these  rails  are  long 
cylinders,  having  pistons,  the  piston-rods  ending  in  hooks. 
One  of  these  lifting  cylinders  is  brought  over  the  piece  to 
be  transported,  the  hook  is  attached  to  slings,  air  at  pres- 
sure is  admitted  beneath  the  piston,  and  the  whole  is  then 
lifted  and  can  be  run  along  the  overhead  lines  to  any 
point  within  the  scope  of  the  apparatus.  The  system, 
though  not  novel,  is  extremely  simple,  and  the  saving  in 
labour,  not  only  in  transporting  work  but  also  in  setting  it 
in  the  tools,  is  considerable.  A  few  of  our  best  equipped 
works  have  these  lifts,  but  they  ought  to  be  more 
universal. 

These  works  were  among  the  best  organized  of  any  I 
visited  in  America,  and  are  full  of  valuable  suggestions  to 
the  managers  of  engineering  shops.  The  machinery  pro- 
duced is  also  interesting  not  only  as  being  mechanically 
ingenious,  but  from  its  destination  and  use.  There  were 
in  progress  complete  plants  for  extracting  the  more  costly 
metals,  from  gold  and  silver,  to  copper,  lead,  and  tin.  The 
four  corners  of  the  earth  are  brought  together  in  the 
Chicago  shops,  more  especially  the  new  corners.  There 
were  in  hand  mining  plants  for  Alaska,  Honolulu,  Honduras, 
British  Columbia,  Tasmania,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  the 
Straits  Settlements,  India,  Cape  Colony,  and  Canada.  It 
was  evident  from  the  work  going  forward  here  that  trade 
in  mining  machinery  does  not  always  follow  the  flag. 

The  hours  of  work  are  ten  a  day,  from  7  to  12  and  1 
to  6.  Saturday  work  closes  at  4  o'clock,  so  that  58  hours 
a  week  are  made.  The  shops  are  kept  going  day  and 
night  and  no  difficulty  is  found  in  regard  to  transferring 
work  from  the  day  shift  to  the  night  shift.  The  foremen, 
between  them,  can  be  depended  upon  to  keep  matters 
straight  in  this  respect.  Piecework  is  not  usual,  day 
wages  being  generally  paid,  but  such  operations  as  can  be 
done  on  the  piece  system  are  so  carried  out.  This  firm 
has  doubled  the  magnitude  of  its  operations  during  the 
last  five  years. 


STATIONARY   ENGINES.  85 

Another  large  engine  factory  I  visited  was  that  of  the 
Lane  and  Bodley  Company  at  Cincinnati.  I  had  seen 
some  large  engines  by  this  company  at  work  and  was 
desirous  of  visiting  the  factory  that  could  produce  such 
fine  examples  of  engineering  as  they  were,  more  especially 
as  I  was  told  that  I  should  find  an  example  of  an  "  old- 
fashioned  firm " — something,  my  informant  said,  that 
would  make  me  think  I  was  at  home.  From  the  latter 
point  of  view  my  visit  was  a  failure.  I  found  the  firm, 
which  had  been  established  in  Cincinnati  for  65  years,  on 
the  point  of  moving  to  quite  new  works  outside  the  town. 
There  they  have  constructed  a  factory  the  principal  building 
of  which  is  800ft.  long  by  500ft.  wide,  and,  to  judge  by  the 
architect's  drawings,  it  is  a  very  handsome  edifice.  In  the 
design  and  laying  out  of  the  new  shops  the  management 
have  incorporated  the  result  of  their  own  experience  and 
that  of  any  other  person  they  could  get  hold  of.  It  is  a 
great  source  of  strength  to  the  American  manufacturer 
that  he  will  adopt  other  people's  ideas  readily  if  he  finds 
them  better  than  his  own.  These  new  shops  are  to  be, 
therefore,  models  of  everything  most  advanced  and  most 
desirable.  I  saw  the  parts  of  one  machine  that  had  just 
been  completed  in  the  old  shops  for  the  equipment  of  the 
new.  It  is  worth  mentioning  as  it  will  help  engineers  to 
size  the  operations  to  be  conducted.  It  was  a  planing 
machine,  112ft.  long,  that  would  operate  on  a  piece  of 
work  16ft.  by  16ft.  in  cross  section  and  would  take  a  cut 
56ft.  long,  that  being  the  length  of  the  table.  The  1 12ft. 
bed  was  in  ten  massive  castings,  and  contained  the  enor- 
mous diagonal  screw  that  moved  the  table.  A  description  of 
this  enormous  machine  tool  would  appear  somewhat  technical 
to  ordinary  readers,  but  they  may  safely  assume  that  with 
such  an  example  (together  with  the  heavy  tools  for  European 
purchasers  made  by  the  Niles  tool  works,  presently  to  be 
described)  it  is  idle  to  say  that  facilities  for  an  opposition  to 
our  marine  engineering  industry  do  not  exist  in  America. 

The  business  of  the  E.  P.  Allis  Company  at  Mil- 
waukee also  shows  that  steam  engines  of  the  very  largest 


80         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION'. 

size  can  be  produced  in  America  ;  and  are,  moreover, 
shipped  across  the  Atlantic  in  competition  with  European 
firms.  It  is  true  these  are  not  marine  engines — the  de- 
sign is  different  ;  but  it  would  be  only  a  small  matter  to 
import  from  the  Clyde  or  Tyne  draughtsmen  competent  to 
furnish  all  the  detailed  work  and  foremen  to  superintend 
its  production,  whilst  practically  all  the  plant  needed  for 
manufacture  already  exists.  There  are,  it  must  be  re- 
membered, many  other  engineering  shops  besides  those 
I  have  mentioned  which  make  big  engines  of  what  may 
fairly  be  called  the  marine  type,  although  they  are  used 
for  land  purposes.  This  should  be  said  injustice  to  other 
firms  ;  but  it  is  unnecessary  to  give  a  list  of  names,  the 
general  plan  of  these  articles  being  to  deal  only  with 
works  visited.  In  regard  to  shipbuilding,  there  is,  in 
America,  some  of  the  most  advanced  practice  in  the  con- 
struction of  steel  hulls  that  I  have  seen  anywhere.  At 
present  we  have  felt  no  pinch  of  foreign  competition  in 
the  shipbuilding  and  marine  engineering  industry, 
although  Germany  now  possesses  the  premier  position  in 
regard  to  speed  and  has  built  and  owns  three  out  of  the 
four  largest  Atlantic  liners.  It  is  not,  however,  towards 
Germany  that  we  need  look  with  most  anxious  eyes  ;  but 
to  America,  the  land  of  enterprise  and  the  home  of  cheap 
steel. 

JUNE  5,  1900. 
XI.— MACHINE     TOOLS.— I. 

In  no  other  field  of  engineering  activity  did  the 
manufacturers  of  Great  Britain  earlier  experience  success- 
ful American  competition  than  in  the  small  machine  tool 
trade,  both  for  metal  and  for  wood  working.  It  is  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  deal  with  this  branch  of  our  subject  in  a 
way  which  will  make  clear  the  reason  of  American  success 
in  this  field  without  entering  into  purely  technical  details. 

In  wood-working  machinery  it  was  perhaps  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  United  States  would  be  the  home  of  many 


MACHINE   TOOLS.  87 

original  ideas,  for  the  Americans  have  always  had  an 
unusually  good  supply  of  excellent  native  timber  and  hard 
woods. 

When  in  Cincinnati,  I  visited  the  works  of  the  J.  A. 
Fay  and  Egan  Company,  who  are  among  the  best  known 
of  the  American  exporters  of  wood-working  machinery.  I 
have  had  some  experience  with  this  firm's  productions, 
and  I  was  therefore  much  interested  in  visiting  the  works. 
I  found  a  big  factory  and  an  excellent  organization.  The 
floor  space  occupied  is  11  acres,  exclusive  of  foundry,  and 
800  to  1,000  men  are  employed.  Perhaps  the  two  most 
interesting  mechanical  features  were  the  band  saws  for 
breaking  down  logs  and  a  new  fixed-knife  planer.  The 
usual  method  of  cutting  up  timber  in  this  country  is  by 
the  gang  saw,  which  may  be  described  as  a  number  of  pit 
saws  placed  side  by  side  .  in  a  frame  and  worked  up  and 
down  by  an  engine.  The  band  saw  consists  of  a  flexible 
serrated  steel  strip,  the  two  ends  of  which  are  brazed 
together  to  make  a  continuous  band.  This  runs  over  two 
flat-rimmed  wheels,  or  pulleys,  mounted  in  a  suitable 
frame.  The  speed  is  very  high  and  the  direction  of  motion 
is  continuous,  not  reciprocating,  as  in  the  gang  saw.  For 
these  reasons  a  very  thin  saw  may  be  used,  and,  naturally, 
there  is  a  narrow  saw  cut,  so  that  less  timber  is  wasted  and 
much  thinner  boards  can  be  produced.  It  is  but  fair  to 
English  engineering  to  say  that  a  firm  of  manufacturers 
of  wood-working  machinery  in  London  have  also  taken  up 
the  introduction  of  the  band  saw  for  heavy  work. 

In  bringing  forward  a  fixed-knife  planing  machine 
the  company  have  adopted  a  distinctly  English  design 
for  we  have  made  machines  of  this  class  for  many  years 
past,  whilst  the  Americans  have  used  the  rotary  cutter, 
also  common  in  Great  Britain.  It  is,  however,  a  new  type 
of  fixed-knife  machine  which  this  company  are  about  to 
introduce,  the  design  being  on  original  lines. 

In  the  course  of  a  conversation  I  had  with  the 
managing  partner  of  these  works  some  points  were  brought 
forward  which  are  worth  repeating.  He  asked  me  to 


88          AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

explain  how  it  was  that,  though  there  were  hundreds  of 
wood-working  machines  of  American  make  in  Great 
Britain,  England  sent  very  few,  if  any,  persons  over  to 
America  to  sell  similar  machines.  To  the  suggestion  that 
it  might  be  owing  to  the  duty,  he  said  :— 

"  No,  that's  not  the  cause.  There  are  plenty  of  machines 
which  it  would  pay  American  makers  to  import,  in  spite  of  the. 
duty,  if  they  were  properly  introduced.  The  fixed-knife  planer 
is  one  of  these  ;  or,  rather,  was  one  of  these,  because  there  has 
been  quite  recently  brought  out  a  design  which  is  superior  even 
to  the  English  machine.  You  have  lost  20  years  and  it  is  now 
too  late. 

"  In  England  you  are  satisfied  to  go  on  in  the  same  old  way  ; 
Americans  are  never  satisfied.  A  few  years  ago  w?e  made  the 
leading  machine  for  producing  wheel  spokes.  With  four  of  these, 
each  attended  by  one  man,  we  could  make  3,500  spokes  a  day. 
That  was  the  best  machine  of  its  period,  but  we  saw  better  work 
could  be  done,  and  we  knew  if  we  did  not  do  it  some  one  else 
wrould.  So  we  improved  our  designs,  wTith  the  result  that  at  the 
present  time  our  machines,  fed  by  one  boy,  will  make  from  12,000 
to  18,000  spokes  per  day,  the  quantity  depending  on  the  timber 
and  the  size  of  spoke." 

The  Fay  and  Egan  Company  have  had  for  25  years  a 
house  in  London,  where  a  number  of  machines  may  be 
seen  in  operation.  They  keep  one  of  their  best  engineers 
here  especially  to  explain  the  mechanism  of  their  tools 
and  illustrate  their  use,  as  well  as  to  superintend  erection 
and  to  see  that  the  machinery  runs  properly  when  installed. 
These  are  matters  in  which  the  Americans  are  undoubtedly 
ahead  of  us.  In  England  it  is  too  often  the  case  that  the 
very  smallest  amount  of  technical  knowledge — a  bare 
knowledge  of  the  names  of  things — is  sufficient  equip- 
ment for  the  man  who  has  to  sell  machinery.  He  is 
generally  selected  from  the  clerical  staff,  his  special 
qualification  being  an  ingratiating  manner,  or  a  "  gentle- 
manly address,"  as  it  is  generally  called.  The  British 
engineer  looks  down  on  the  selling  business  as  something 
altogether  beneath  him  ;  he  did  not  study  his  "  profes- 
sion "  to  become  a  commercial  traveller.  It  is  worth 
while  to  draw  attention  to  this  matter  as  it  is  one  of  the 


MACHINE   TOOLS.  89 

points  in  which  the  Americans  have  an  advantage  over  us, 
and  accounts  as  much,  perhaps,  as  any  one  thing  for  the 
large  numbers  of  machine  tools  that  have  been  brought 
into  England  during  the  last  few  years.     I  can  say,  from 
my  own  knowledge,  that  there  are  now  in  England  several 
commercial    representatives    of  American    firms    who  are 
high-class  mechanical  engineers  ;  men  who  are  acquainted 
with  every  detail  of  the  machines  they  sell,  who  can   take 
their  place  at  a  machine  tool  and  put  it  through  all  its 
operations  ;    who    can    give    a   reason    for    breakdown  or 
failure,  and  can  point  out  the  remedy.     Moreover,  these 
American  commercial  travellers  are  fruitful  in  suggestion. 
The  head  of  a  large  English  engineering  firm,  himself  a 
mechanical  engineer  of  high  attainments,  makes   a  point 
of  taking  the   representatives   of  American  machine  tool 
makers  into  his  shops.     He  says,  "  I  never  do  so  without 
getting   some  ideas   that  are  valuable  or  hints  which  are 
suggestive."    One  can  easily  understand  that  "  commercial 
travellers  "  of  this  class  get  orders  and  make  large  incomes. 
Another  matter  in  which  the  American  "  representa- 
tive "  profits  by  his   expert  knowledge  is  in  seeing  that  a 
machine  is  properly   worked  after  it  has  been  installed. 
The  average  machine  tool  seller  is  too  apt  to  consider  his 
interest  at  an  end  as  soon  as  the  bill  is  paid.  The  American 
representative  is  not  so  easily  satisfied,  and  some  amusing 
tales  are  told  of  the  way  in  which  these  gentlemen  have  been 
subjected  to  the  suspicion  of  trying  to  learn  more  than  they 
ought  to  know  because  they  have  endeavoured  to  get  into 
the  shops  to  see  that  their  machines  were  working  properly. 
It  must  be  confessed  that  the  American  is  often  somewhat 
pertinacious.  He  will  not  be  contented  with  the  assurance 
that  the  tools  "  are  working  all  right,"  or  "  are  giving  satis- 
faction," but  insists  on  seeing  for  himself.   His  pertinacity 
is    more   annoying  when  he  tells  one  that  the  machine  is 
"  only  doing  half  what  it  ought  to  do,"  that  "  its  speed  is 
too  low,"  and  that  the  devices  and  attachments  are  not 
being  utilized  (i  as  they  would  be  in  America."  I  am  afraid 
it  is  the  truth  of  these  criticisms  which  makes  them  jar,  and 


90          AMEEICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

which  often  gives  them  an  appearance  of  rudeness  which 
is  far  from  being  intended.  The  fact  is  the  American  is 
very  plain  spoken  in  such  matters,  and,  not  being  above 
profiting  by  the  experience  of  others,  thinks  others  will 
be  glad  to  profit  by  his  experience — that  they  will  prefer 
a  prick  to  their  pride  rather  than  a  rent  in  their  pockets. 

A  great  deal  might  be  said — perhaps  ought  to  be 
said — on  this  subject  of  speeds  and  methods  of  working 
machine  tools,  for  the  matter  lies  near  the  root  of  cheap- 
ness, but  limits  of  space  forbid  details.  I  have,  however, 
less  reluctance  in  cutting  out  my  remarks  on  this  sub- 
ject, as  another  has  done  the  work  before  me.  Those  Eng- 
lish engineers  who  wish  to  see  themselves  as  a  very  com- 
petent observer  has  seen  them  may,  with  advantage, 
study  a  little  book  by  Mr.  F.  J.  Miller,  the  editor  of  The 
American  Machinist  of  New  York,  entitled,  "  American 
and  other  Machinery  Abroad."  It  is  not  pleasant  reading 
for  a  Briton,  but  it  is  wholesome.  Mr.  Miller  has 
generously  taken  the  course  most  profitable  to  those  who 
were  his  hosts,  and  least  profitable  to  his  own  country- 
men. He  is  absolutely  fair  in  his  criticisms,  and  has 
mostly  selected  points  for  comment  in  which  American 
practice  is  superior  to  our  own.  That  is  how  it  is  Mr. 
Miller  has  done  so  much  of  my  work  before  me,  for  it  need 
hardly  be  pointed  out  that  the  same  plan  has  been  fol- 
lowed in  these  present  articles,  it  being  their  aim,  not 
to  wave  the  Union  Jack,  but  to  do  something  towards 
keeping  it  at  the  top  of  the  pole. 

In  the  medium  and  smaller  class  of  metal  working 
machine  tools  the  United  States  have  for  long  held  a.  high 
reputation.  This  has  been  due  to  two  principal  causes — 
ingenuity  of  design  and  accuracy  of  workmanship.  The 
latter  is  largely  dependent  on  the  former,  for  the  American 
automatic  methods  of  manufacture  facilitate  and  cheapen 
the  production  of  component  parts  to  exact  dimensions. 

The  pioneer  of  mechanical  accuracy,  upon  which 
modern  engineering  is  founded,  was  an  Englishman  who 
did  his  long  life's  work  in  England.  The  late  Joseph 


MACHINE   TOOLS.  91 

Whitworth  carried  mechanical  practice  to  a  higher  plane 
than  it  had  been  left  even  by  the  founder  of  steam  engi- 
neering. Whitworth  taught  us  the  great  moral  lesson  of 
mechanics,  the  value  of  truth  in  construction.  He  was 
not  a  great  genius,  striking  out  new  paths,  as  Watt  or 
Bessemer,  nor  of  high  education  and  subtle  physical  in- 
sight, as  Lord  Kelvin  or  the  late  Dr.  John  Hopkinson  ; 
but  the  talents  he  had,  and  they  were  considerable,  he 
used  with  steadfast  purpose  and  a  determination  to  do  no 
work  that  was  not  honest  and  true.  As  a  result  he  placed 
the  machine  tool  trade  of  this  country  far  above  that  of 
any  other  nation. 

This  much  is  due  to  be  said  of  England,  for  a  good 
deal  that  has  to  be  stated  in  speaking  of  accuracy  in 
mechanism  must  now  be  said  in  favour  of  America.  In 
some  of  the  machine  shops  of  the  United  States  the  effort 
for  accuracy  is  carried  to  an  extent  that  would  seem 
almost  a  craze  were  it  not  justified  by  events.  One  can 
understand  the  need  of  precision  so  strict  in  the  case  of 
delicate  workmanship  such  as  that  used  for  machine 
watch-making — one  of  the  most  beautiful  mechanical 
developments  of  the  age — but  for  machine  tools  destined 
to  do  ordinary  engineering  work  such  accuracy  appears 
superfluous,  a  thing  that  was  once  said  of  Whitworth's 
work.  In  the  present  day  highly  expensive  machine  tools 
of  extreme  exactitude  are  the  foundation  of  much  of  the 
successful  and  cheap  engineering  work  of  both  America 
and  of  Great  Britain.  Costly  as  such  appliances  are,  they 
contribute  far  less  to  the  debit  side  of  the  ledger  than  the 
skilled  labour  they  displace. 

The  home  of  the  American  machine  tool  industry  is 
in  the  New  England  States,  although  the  march  of 
mechanical  development  has  been  largely  westward  of  late 
years  ;  indeed,  there  are  some  Americans  who  say  that,  in 
the  struggle  for  supremacy,  the  more  western  States  are 
going  to  be  to  New  England  what  New  England  has  been 
to  Old  England.  Leaving  out  of  account  what  may  be  the 
relative  positions  of  Old  and  New  England,  I  do  not  think 


i>2  AMERICAN  ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

there  is  much  sign  of  the  Yankee  States'  being  over- 
shadowed entirely  by  the  progressive  West.  In  fact,  there 
is  ample  room  for  far  more  machine  tool  factories  than 
now  exist  in  both  districts.  1  visited  several  of  the  New 
England  shops,  but  will  confine  my  very  brief  remarks  to 
one  or  two  which  are  typical. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  Pratt  and  Whitney  Machine 
Tool  Company,  whose  extensive  works  are  at  Hartford, 
Connecticut.  This  firm  has  always  appeared  to  me  to 
represent  very  fully  the  ingenuity  aspect  of  American 
machine  tool  production  ;  and  it  may  be  said  in  passing 
that  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  most  successful  de- 
signers of  tools  I  have  met  in  America  received  their  train- 
ing in  these  shops.  Although  the  firm's  productions  were 
long  known  in  England,  it  was,  I  think,  the  cycle  business 
that  brought  them  more  prominently  forward.  P'or  form- 
ing hubs  of  wheels,  sprockets,  brackets,  and  many  other 
parts  the  American  designers  produced  some  of  the  most 
ingenious  machine  tools  engineers  have  ever  seen.  They 
were  a  revelation  to  many  in  this  country,  for  not  only 
was  the  work  far  more  quickly  and  cheaply  produced,  but 
it  was  also  more  accurate,  so  that  the  parts  were  always 
strictly  interchangeable. 

The  American  tool  makers,  finding  so  lucrative  a 
market  for  cycle  machinery,  began  to  look  round  and  soon 
saw  there  were  other  outlets  for  their  wares.  Since  then 
the  imports  have  increased  to  a  most  surprising  degree, 
although  not  much  of  the  trade  is  now  to  be  attributed  to 
cycle  machinery.  At  the  present  time  the  American 
exports  of  metal  working  machinery  reach  not  very  far 
from  a  million  sterling,  and  are  increasing  by  leaps  and 
bounds. 

The  Pratt  and  Whitney  Company's  exhibit  of  cycle- 
making  machinery  in  the  Crystal  Palace  show  of  1896 
formed  for  us  a  really  important  feature  in  the  history  of 
automatic  machine  tools.  The  exhibit  took  the  shape  of 
what  was  virtually  a  model  factory,  the  cycle  parts  being 
turned  out  as  they  would  be  in  practical  commercial  work 


MACHINE   TOOLS.  9& 

The  machines  and  their  operations  were  described  at  the 
time  in  Engineering,  and  in  the  columns  of  that  publica- 
tion those  interested  may  find  illustrations  and  full  details. 
For  the  present  it  will  suffice  to  say  thut  nearly  all  the 
complicated  machinery  operations  for  forming  a  bicycle 
hub  were  carried  out  automatically  by  one  machine.  A 
continuous  steel  rod  was  fed  up  through  the  mandrel,  which 
was  made  hollow  for  the  purpose.  Most  of  the  cutting  tools 
were  mounted  on  a  circular  turret,  and,  as  each  operation 
was  performed,  the  turret  automatically  revolved  and  the 
new  tool  was  brought  into  position  and  traversed  along  the 
work  to  make  the  cut.  Other  cutting  tools  were  placed  at 
the  side  and  were  fed  up  in  orderly  sequence  when  their 
turn  came.  When  a  hub  had  been  formed  and  duly 
bored  out  hollow,  it  was  automatically  cut  off  the  end  of 
the  steel  bar.  The  latter  was  then  released  from  the  chuck, 
which  held  it  firmly  for  the  cutting  operations,  and  was 
again  fed  forward  the  required  distance  to  make  another 
hub.  All  these  operations  were  carried  out  automatically 
without  any  further  human  intervention  than  was  needed 
to  start  the  machine  when  the  day's  work  began,  and  to 
feed  it  at  intervals  with  steel  rods.  The  various  compli- 
cated evolutions  are  carried  out  by  a  series  of  cams,  levers, 
springs,  and  catches  that  are  bewildering  to  follow,  but 
which  seem  to  act  with  unfailing  certainty.  I  think  any 
one  looking  at  a  bicycle  hub,  with  its  deep  flanges  and 
complicated  form,  will  agree  that  it  is  a  triumph  of 
mechanical  ingenuity  that  it  can  be  produced  by  shutting 
a  machine  and  a  bar  of  round  steel  up  in  a  room  by  them- 
selves. 

I  saw  at  the  Pratt  and  Whitney  Works  many  details 
of  great  interest  and  high  importance  from  an  engineering 
point  of  view,  but  they  must  pass,  for  The  Times  is  not  a 
technical  journal.  I  will,  however,  mention  as  a  practical 
example,  for  the  benefit  of  engineers,  a  square-threaded 
screw,  to  be  used  for  the  elevating  head  of  a  drill  press. 
The  diameter  was  If  in.  over  the  thread.  There  was  a  wide 
collar  ou  this  piece,  and  the  end  had  a  United  States 


94  AMERICAN  ENGINEERING   COMPETITION. 

standard  thread,  much  the  same  as  our  Whitworth  thread. 
It  has  now  become  general  with  us  in  the  best  equipped 
machine  shops  to  use  screwing  machines  for  Whitworth 
threads — i.e.,  those  approximately  of  triangular  section — 
of  even  larger  sizes  than  this,  but  I  have  not  seen  square 
threads  cut  in  the  same  way  elsewhere.  That,  however^ 
was  what  they  were  doing  at  Hartford,  and  the  gain  of  it 
will  be  judged  when  it  is  stated  that  the  time  taken  to 
finish  the  piece,  including  turning  the  cylindrical  part  and 
facing  the  collar,  was  45  minutes.  Under  the  old  system 
the  production  of  one  lathe  was  two  pieces  a  day.  More- 
over, the  lathe  man  would  need  to  be  a  skilled  turner, 
whilst  any  one  can  mind  a  screwing  machine. 


JUNE  6,  1900. 
XII.— MACHINE    TOOLS.— II. 

The  second  of  the  New  England  machine-tool  firms 
to  which  reference  has  formerly  been  made  is  that  of  the 
Brown  and  Sharpe  Manufacturing  Company,  whose  works 
are  at  Providence,  in  the  State  of  Khode  Island.  It  is  here 
that  one  finds  the  striving  to  approach  accuracy  as  fully 
developed  as  anywhere  in  the  world.  If  the  spirit  of 
Whitworth  revisits  this  world,  I  think  it  must  hover  some- 
where near.  The  physical  manifestation  of  this  spirit 
takes  the  form  of  micrometer  gauges,  standard  plugs,  rings, 
and  other  measuring  instruments  made  in  these  works, 
which  are  seen  in  many  of  the  best  engineering  workshops, 
not  only  of  America,  but  elsewhere.  A  long  chapter  could 
be  written  on  the  system  of  gauging  work  by  means  of 
hardened  and  ground  steel  pieces  of  "  dead-true  "  dimen- 
sions— a  matter  English  mechanical  engineers  would  do 
well  to  study  closely.  It  is  the  boast  of  some  of  the  most 
advanced  machine-shop  managers  that  a  foot-rule  is  never 
seen  in  the  place.  To  give  an  elementary  idea  of  the 
method  of  procedure,  we  will  suppose  it  is  needed  to  plane 
a  given  part  of  a  machine,  a  bed-plate,  say,  to  an  inch  in 
thickness.  The  casting  is  fixed  to  the  table  of  the  planing 


MACHINE   TOOLS.  95 

machine,  and  beside  it  is  placed  a  hardened  and  polished 
piece  of  steel  known  to  be  exactly  an  inch  thick.  The 
bed-plate  having  first  been  brought  to  approximately 
the  required  thickness,  the  bridge,  or  adjustable  cross-slide 
of  the  machine,  is  lowered,  and  adjustment  is  made  until 
the  cutting  tool  just  touches  the  steel  gauge  piece.  Such 
an  operation  can  be  carried  out  by  any  workman,  and  the 
piece  is  then  necessarily  planed  to  practically  exact 
dimensions.  The  method  is  not  new  in  principle,  but  in 
order  to  get  its  full  advantage  the  measuring  piece  must 
be  accurate  within  very  close  limits.  To  produce  the 
gauge  an  expensive  plant  is  needed,  and  great  care  must 
be  exercised  in  making.  The  little  plain  cube  of  steel 
appears  costly  beyond  reason  at  first  glance,  but  not  so  if 
one  has  to  produce  it  within  the  prescribed  limits  of 
"  tolerance."  Other  extensions  of  the  system  are  found  in 
rigid  diameter  gauges,  used  in  place  of  ordinary  adjust- 
able callipers,  the  use  of  the  latter  involving  quite  appre- 
ciable error  unless  in  very  careful  and  skilled  hands,  added 
to  which  much  time  is  needed  for  adjustment.  Plug  and 
ring  gauges  are  better  known. 

A  complete  outfit  of  gauges,  &c.,  involves  consider- 
able outlay.  The  usual  pair  of  callipers,  and  a  foot-rule, 
costing  next  to  nothing,  will  do  nearly  all  the  work  ;  but 
they  will  do  it  so  roughly,  so  much  worse,  that  a  machine 
shop  following  the  old  method  can  never  hope  to  com- 
pete with  one  that  adopts  the  new.  It  will  be  understood 
that  there  are  makers  of  standard  gauges  in  England,  the 
country  where  the  principle  had  its  birth,  but  I  am  not 
now  writing  of  English  works.  I  feel  constrained  to  say, 
however,  that  in  the  United  States  the  more  enlightened 
and  more  accurate  system  is  followed  to  a  fuller  extent  than 
it  is  here.  In  engineering  works  with  us  one  often  sees  a  set 
of  plug  and  ring  gauges  treasured  as  if  they  were  precious 
heirlooms  not  to  be  touched  by  hands  profane.  To  be  of 
use  such  things  must  be  used,  and  used  constantly.  They 
should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  workmen,  available  at  a  second's 
notice,  not  in  a  glass  case  in  the  works  manager's  office. 


93  AMERICAN .  ENGINEERING   COMPETITION. 

"  But  what  an  enormous  outlay  this  means — thousands 
of  pounds  !  "  I  think  I  hear  a  works  manager  say.  Exactly ; 
but  think  of  the  splendid  return  in  labour  saved  and 
enhanced  quality  of  work — higher  selling  prices,  dividends 
— that  would  come  from  those  thousands. 

I  wish  the  council  of  the  Institution  of  Mechanical 
Engineers  would  pass  a  by-law  that  no  one  should  be  ad- 
mitted to  membership  until  he  had  visited  a  certain  num- 
ber of  American  workshops  ;  or — as  perhaps  that  would  be 
somewhat  too  limiting — at  any  rate,  that  they  would  give 
more  weight  to  such  experience  in  judging  fitness  for  full 
membership  and  associate  membership.  In  view  of  the 
progress  in  America  of  bridge-building  methods  and  other 
constructive  work,  the  same  thing  might  be  said  in  a 
modified  degree  of  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers. 
We  have  suffered  more  in  our  engineering  practice  from 
stopping  at  home  and  thinking  that  what  we  do  not  know 
is  not  worth  knowing  than  can  well  be  imagined. 

I  say  visit  "  American  workshops  "  and  not  "  foreign 
workshops,"  because  it  is  true  that  in  the  United  States 
there  is  incomparably  more  that  is  useful  for  us  to  learn 
in  a  given  area  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  Belgium 
has  applied  scientific  principles  to  steam  engine  construc- 
tion with  commonsense,  and  therefore  with  success  ;  the 
Swiss  are  excellent  engineers,  especially  in  their  utiliza- 
tion of  water  power  for  electric  generation.  France  also 
is  a  useful  country  for  the  engineer  to  travel  in,  not  only 
for  the  sake  of  learning  how  to  do  things,  but  also,  in  a 
limited  degree,  how  not  to  do  them.  French  designs  are 
generally  original,  but  too  often  smell  of  the  lamp.  The 
Germans  are  their  direct  opposite,  and  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  sound  commercial  engineering  in  the  country. 
They  are  practical,  if  slow.  Not,  however,  slow  to  copy, 
and  the  discrimination  they  show  in  this  respect  has  won 
for  them  a  commercial  success  their  commonsense  merits. 
I  must  do  the  Grermans  the  justice  to  say,  however,  that 
there  is  in  Berlin  one  of  the  most  complete  and  best  laid 
out  machine  tool  factories  in  the  world.  Its  building  up 


MACHINE   TOOLS.  97 

presents  a  valuable  object-lesson  to  British  tool  makers. 
The  works  in  question  are  those  of  Ludw.  Loewe  and  Co., 
a  firm  which  for  25  years  past  has  made  and  sold  machine 
tools,  and  has  built  up  a  large  business,  a  good  part  of  it 
in  this  country.  Four  years  ago  the  Americans  came 
strongly  into  the  European  market,  as  already  stated,  and 
the  responsible  managers  of  these  works  soon  saw  that 
they  would  have  to  meet  a  competition  such  as  they  had 
never  before  experienced.  To  do  this  they  wisely  deter- 
mined that  the  old  crowded  works  in  the  centre  of  Berlin 
— built  up,  like  so  many  of  our  own,  piecemeal  on  the 
accretion  theory — would  no  longer  serve.  A  large  piece 
of  new  land  was  therefore  secured  on  the  outskirts  of 
Berlin.  The  next  two  years  were  spent  by  the  managers 
of  the  works  in  travelling  in  Europe  and  America, 
wherever  engineering  works  were  to  be  seen,  for  the  sake 
of  noting  everything  that  was  worth  noting  and  adopting 
everything  that  was  worth  adopting.  The  result,  I  re- 
gret to  say,  is  that  the  new  works  are  entirely  on  American 
lines.  English  engineers  who  cannot  afford  the  time  to 
visit  Berlin  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  these  works  can  get 
a  fair  idea  of  the  extent  and  completeness  of  them  from 
an  illustrated  account  which  appeared  in  Engineering  last 
autumn.  I  would,  however,  strongly  advise  all  who  can 
do  so  to  go  and  see  for  themselves. 

The  remarkable  development  that  has  taken  place  of 
late  years  in  the  more  westerly  or  middle  States  in  the 
manufacture  of  machine  tools  is  a  matter  that  should  not 
be  overlooked.  On  the  shores  of  Lake  Erie,  in  the  hand- 
some city  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  I  spent  a  considerable  time 
in  the  works  of  Warner  and  Swazey.  This  firm  is,  per- 
haps, best  known  as  having  made  the  famous  telescope  of 
the  Lick  Observatory,  and  they  have  always  done  quite 
an  extensive  business  in  instruments  and  outfits  for 
astronomical  purposes.  I  mention  this  more  especially 
because  the  influence  of  the  work  is  plainly  to  be  seen 
throughout  their  productions.  In  connexion  with  this  ques- 
tion of  the  influence  of  subsidiary  manufactures  I  might 


D8  AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

state  that  the  Brown  and  Sharpe  Company  have  for  years 
past  made  the  Willcox  and  Gibbs  sewing  machine,  and, 
I  understand,  they  attribute  a  good  deal  of  their  success 
as  tool  makers  to  this  fact.  To  produce  such  a  sewing 
machine  as  this,  with  delicate  parts  all  interchangeable, 
compels  accuracy  in  the  appliances  by  which  it  is  made. 
It  is  an  ever-vigilant  inspection  officer  overlooking  the 
machine  tool  department,  and  moreover  it  has  been  fruit- 
ful in  stimulating  invention.  In  the  same  way  the  beauti- 
ful work  needed  for  astronomical  appliances  has  made  its 
impress  on  the  productions  of  Warner  and  Swazey  in 
Cleveland.  Perhaps  an  instance  will  best  illustrate  this 
point.  In  an  underground  room,  carefully  insulated 
against  changes  of  temperature,  is  placed  the  divid- 
ing-engine which  is  used  for  the  more  accurate 
work  done  here.  It  consists  of  a  circular  metal  table 
having  worm  teeth  cut  in  its  periphery,  and  is  caused  to 
revolve  by  means  of  a  worm  which  gears  into  the  teeth. 
The  object  to  be  divided — it  may  be  a  meridian  or  a  tran- 
sit circle — is  fastened  to  the  table  and  a  scribing  point  is 
caused  to  reciprocate  so  as  to  scratch  the  divisions  on  the 
metal  circle.  The  circular  motion  of  the  table  is  intermit- 
tent, and  it  will  be  evident  that,  unless  all  the  separate 
movements  that  take  place  between  the  marking  of  each 
line  are  of  the  same  amplitude,  the  divisions  will  not  be 
true.  I  believe  this  instrument  is  generally  allowed  to 
afford  the  nearest  approach  to  accuracy  in  work  of  any 
yet  made.  The  worm  which  turns  the  table  is  operated 
by  a  hydraulic  motor  which  derives  its  movement  from 
water  at  a  constant  head,  so  that  the  power  exerted  is  un- 
changing. That  in  itself  would  be  insufficient,  for,  if  the 
pitch  of  the  worm  and  of  the  teeth  in  the  circumference 
of  the  table  were  not  true,  the  divisions  on  the  work  would 
also  be  out  of  truth — that  is  to  say,  the  approach  to  accu- 
racy in  the  work  produced  depends  on  the  similarity  in 
distance  of  the  movements  of  the  table.  In  order  to  get 
as  near  absolute  truth  as  was  possible,  the  makers  worked 
on  the  engine  for  2^  years*,  at  the  end  of  which  time  they 


MACHINE    TOOLS.  99 

reduced  the  errors  of  divisions  to  1J  seconds  of  arc.  That 
would  have  appeared  to  a  good  many  people  as  near  accu- 
racy as  ordinary  human  beings  could  hope  to  get  ;  but 
the  makers  were  not  satisfied,  and  after  another  year's 
work  they  reduced  the  error  to  less  than  a  second  of  arc, 
equal  in  distance  to  about  one  inch  on  a  circle  of  three 
miles  radius  or  one  in  1,193,702.  In  order  to  prevent 
expansion  or  contraction  through  change  of  temperature, 
the  room  is,  as  already  stated,  carefully  insulated  and  kept 
at  a  uniform  heat.  It  is  said  that  the  heat  from  the  body 
of  an  attendant  would  produce  quite  an  appreciable  dis- 
tortion in  the  table,  and,  therefore,  for  fine  work  care  is 
taken  that  no  one  shall  approach  the  machine.  As  all  the 
movements  are  automatic,  the  usual  mode  of  procedure  is 
to  leave  the  machine  to  do  its  duty  and  lock  up  the  room. 
The  dividing  of  transit  and  meridian  circles  needs  the 
greatest  accuracy,  as  they  are  used  to  fix  the  position  of 
stars,  and  this  can  be  accomplished* as  stated,  within  a 
second  of  arc. 

Naturally  such  super-refinement  of  accuracy  is  not 
needed  in  machine  tool  making,  but  it  is  a  wonderful  help 
to  the  shops,  nevertheless.  An  instance  may  be  taken  of 
a  tool  for  making  gun-metal  valves  for  water  or  steam. 
The  parts  are  produced  in  automatic  machines,  and  each 
part  of  any  valve  must  fit  the  part  of  any  other  valve  that 
is  complementary  to  it  with  sufficient  accuracy  to  make 
the  whole  steam  or  water  tight.  The  usual  way  of  making 
valves  and  cocks  is  to  turn  them  on  a  lathe.  For  a  shell 
this  will  need  three  chuckings  and  many  operations  on 
the  part  of  a  skilled  turner.  I  saw  globe  valves  turned 
from  rough  brass  castings  in  one  of  the  automatic 
machines.  The  part  was  taken  and  held  in  a  revolving 
chuck  or  holder,  both  ends  were  bored,  tapped  (i.e.,  had  an 
internal  screw  thread  cut),  and  squared  on  the  outside,  and 
the  part  was  bored  and  tapped  to  take  the  gland  which 
carries  the  stem.  All  this  includes  a  large  number  of 
operations,  and  they  were  all  performed  by  the  machine  in 
about  one  minute — the  size  was  a  one  inch  valve — so 

G— 2 


100         AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

unerringly  that  no  hand  work  was  needed,  an  ordinary 
unskilled  attendant  "  minding  "  the  machine.  I  do  not 
think  a  highly-skilled  brass  turner  with  an  ordinary  brass 
finisher's  lathe  would  do  the  work  in  less  than  15  minutes  ; 
and  even  then  the  "  human  factor  "  would  introduce  an 
element  of  uncertainty  that  would  render  interchange- 
ability  very  doubtful. 

The  view  must  not  be  adopted  that  these  advanced 
machines  are  used  only  in  the  United  States,  for  large 
numbers  of  them  have  been  sent  abroad  from  American 
workshops,  and,  indeed,  there  is  one  firm  in  England 
which,  from  small  beginnings,  has  rapidly  grown  to  a 
business  of  some  importance  and  which  is  doing  good 
work  in  producing  machine  tools  on  the  same  lines.  But 
what  is  one  firm  against  the  many  big  works  in  America  ? 
They  are  turning  out  day  after  day — or  often,  one  should 
say,  day  after  night  and  night  after  day — labour-saving 
and  profit-earning  machines,  mostly  for  home  use.  The 
difficulty  in  Great  Britain  remains,  even  if  the  organiza- 
tion existed  for  producing  the  tools,  of  getting  them  used. 
An  actual  example,  which  came  before  my  notice  three  or 
four  years  ago,  will  illustrate  this.  A  large  firm  of  brass 
finishers  in  England,  having  seen  the  American  automatic 
machines  at  work,  decided  to  purchase  some  for  their  own 
use,  and  the  order  was  actually  placed.  A  few  days  after 
the  managing  partner  came  to  the  representative  of  the 
American  house  and  begged  to  have  the  order  cancelled, 
offering  to  pay  compensation,  which,  however,  was  not 
accepted.  The  reason  for  this  change  of  policy  turned 
out  to  be  that  the  foreman,  when  consulted  about  the 
disposition  of  the  new  machinery,  had  warned  the  firm 
that  the  change  would  be  so  opposed  by  the  men  that 
labour  troubles  and  consequent  disorganization  of  business 
would  result,  and  therefore  the  old  hand  methods 
continued. 

In  these  circumstances  it  is  hardly  surprising  to  find 
that  the  American  automatic  machinery  is  being  shipped 
to  all  parts  of  the  world  ;  and  also  that  the  American 


MACHINE   TOOLS.  101 

exports  of  manufactured  brass,  although  still  less  than  our 
own,  are  advancing  year  by  year  with  rapid  strides,  whilst 
our  own  are  declining.  I  saw  at  the  Warner  and  Swazey 
works  the  last  instalment  of  a  complete  equipment  of  auto- 
matic machines  for  making  steam  valves.  This  plant  was 
being  shipped  to  Mexico  for  a  works  where  copper  is 
smelted  and  brass  is  made.  The  order  included  every- 
thing needed.  There  were  complete  sets  of  drawings  of 
the  most  modern  and  approved  forms  of  valves,  patterns, 
machines,  tools,  fixtures,  gauges,  flasks  for  casting,  &c. 
The  only  thing  that  remained  to  be  done  in  Mexico  was 
to  erect  the  machinery  and  set  to  work.  Of  course,  one 
or  two  American  workmen  were  being  sent  out  to  start 
operations,  and  for  the  rest  the  unskilled  labour  of 
the  country  will  suffice.  I  do  not  know  whether 
the  Mexicans  propose  entering  the  foreign  market. 
Probably  the  commercial  organization  is  not  sufficiently 
developed  for  that  ;  but,  if  they  do,  the  brass  finishers  of 
this  country,  highly  skilled  as  they  are,  will  not  stand  a 
ghost  of  a  chance  against  the  untrammelled  and  low-paid 
labour  of  Mexico,  as  applied  to  the  highly-organized  and 
beautifully-made  tools  that  are  going  out  from  Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

The  great  army  of  skilled  mechanics  in  this  country 
are  considered  a  tower  of  industrial  strength,  but  perhaps 
they  may  also  prove  a  source  of  weakness  ;  and  here  it 
may  be  pointed  out  that  great  manual  dexterity  by  no 
means  indicates  a  high  state  of  civilization,  but  perhaps 
rather  the  reverse.  The  ivory  carvings  of  China  and  even 
the  flint  implements  of  pre-historic  man  are  instances  in 
point.  Before  planing  machines,  milling  machines,  and 
emery  grinders  were  invented  the  mechanics  who  chipped 
surfaces  with  the  chisel,  and  filed  them  smooth  by  hand* 
possessed  a  manual  dexterity  that  seems  to  be  fast  dis- 
appearing. .Rude  as  many  of  the  early  steam-engines  are 
to  our  eyes,  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  could  be  produced 
now  with  the  appliances  then  in  use.  Any  lad  fresh  from 
school  can  learn  to  attend  a  milling  machine  in  a  few 


102         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION, 

hours,  and  will  produce  a  surface  that  could  hardly  be 
excelled  by  a  man  with  hand  tools  who  had  spent  half  a 
lifetime  in  acquiring  manual  dexterity.  A  great  many 
English  artisans  who  go  out  to  the  United  States  find  the 
first  thing  they  have  to  do  is  to  forget  they  are  "  skilled 
mechanics."  Some  refuse  to  learn  the  lesson,  and  they 
either  go  to  the  wall  or  go  home  again.  The  majority, 
however,  conform  to  the  situation,  and  mould  themselves 
to  the  new  conditions  in  a  manner  they  would  never  do  in 
England.  The  man  who  has  the  sense  to  do  this  will 
generally  rise,  and  then  his  wider  knowledge  stands  him 
in  good  stead.  His  early  training  has  been  in  shops  where 
specialization  is  not  carried  to  the  extent  it  is  in  America. 
He  is  not  a  mere  machine-minder,  and  so  it  often  comes 
about  that  he  is  chosen  as  foreman,  because  his  more 
comprehensive  knowledge  enables  him  to  exercise  jurisdic- 
tion over  a  wider  field. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  have  found  the  majority  of  the 
most  highly-skilled  mechanics  in  America,  such  as  are 
employed  in  the  tool  rooms,  to  be  Americans  native  born, 
or  at  any  rate  educated  in  America.  The  reason  for  this  it  is 
difficult  to  give,  but  probably  that  superior  education — to 
use  the  word  in  its  widest  sense — of  the  American  work- 
man enables  him  to  think  more  closely,  and  to  study  how 
best  to  develop  manual  dexterity  ;  for,  after  all,  what  we 
call  manual  dexterity  is  largely  a  matter  of  brain  power. 

In  the  heavy  description  of  machine  tools  we  have  not 
yet  experienced  any  competition  of  a  very  serious 
nature,  but  the  American  makers  are  now  giving  more 
attention  to  this  class  of  work.  When  in  Hamilton,  Ohio, 
I  visited  the  Mies  Tool  Works,  and  was  surprised  to  find 
so  extensive  an  establishment  in  this  far  inland  town. 
Quite  recently  there  has  been  an  amalgamation  of  the 
nature  now  so  popular  in  America,  of  four  large  engineer- 
ing firms  making  big  machine  tools.  These  are  the  Niles 
Works,  Bement  Miles  and  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  the  Pond 
Machine  Tool  Company,  of  New  Jersey,  and  the  Phila- 
delphia Engineering  Company.  The  last  named  devote 


MACHINE   TOOLS.  103 

themselves  largely  to  electric  cranes  and  steam  hammers. 
I  visited  only  the  Niles  Tool  Works,  and  will  give  a  few 
extracts  from  my  notes.  The  first  machine  I  saw  in  pro- 
gress on  entering  the  spacious  and  well-arranged  shops— 
the  largest  is  400ft.  by  400ft. — was  a  horizontal  boring, 
milling,  and  drilling  machine  having  a  10ft.  bed,  with  a 
circular  revolving  table.  This  was  a  very  large  and 
powerful  tool,  suitable  for  heavy  marine  work,  and  was  to 
be  erected  in  a  marine  engineering  works  in  Holland. 
There  were  nine  of  these  in  progress  at  the  time,  the 
majority  being  for  Europe.  It  was  stated  incidentally 
that  about  half  the  product  of  these  works  is  to  fulfil  export 
orders,  the  foreign  trade  having  increased  largely  of  late. 
Next  there  was  a  set  of  steam  bending  rolls,  but  these 
were  for  the  American  Government.  They  would  bend  a 
plate  25ft.  long  and  lin  thick.  A  vertical  boring  mill  was 
16ft.  between  the  housings  and  would  take  work  8ft.  high 
under  the  bridge  on  which  the  saddles  traverse.  There 

O 

were  no  fewer  than  14  of  these  big  machines  in  hand.  Two 
of  these  were  arranged  so  that  the  columns  and  bridge  they 
support  would  slide  back  on  the  bed.  In  this  way  work 
24ft.  in  diameter  could  be  dealt  with  on  the  revolving 
tables,  the  latter  being  designed  to  take  work  up  to  150 
tons  weight  and  having  spindles  24in.  in  diameter.  A  big 
planing  machine  would  operate  on  pieces  13ft.  square  and 
take  a  cut  30ft.  long.  Two  of  these  were  in  progress  for 
Germany,  and  a  large  firm  of  Sheffield  steel-makers  have  also 
two  of  these  planers  at  work.  Next  there  was  a  90in.  loco- 
motive wheel  lathe  in  progress  ;  then  two  car  wheel 
presses,  one  of  400  tons,  and  one  of  500  tons  ;  there  being 
also  twelve  200  tons  presses  in  hand.  Three  heavy  slotting 
machines  came  next,  each  having  a  24in.  stroke.  One  of 
these  was  for  America  and  one  for  Honolulu,  which  seems 
a  strange  destination  for  so  large  a  machine.  There  had 

o  O 

recently  been  supplied  to  a  Sheffield  firm  two  big  slotting 
machines,  and  two  more  had  just  been  despatched  to 
France.  It  would  be  wearisome  to  continue  a  catalogue  of 
the  machines  in  progress,  but  perhaps  enough  has  been 


104         AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

said  to  show  that  big  tools  can  be  made  in  the  United 
States  to  be  sold  abroad.  Whether  the  business  is  likely 
to  increase  is  a  matter  on  which  opinion  may  be  divided. 
I  can  only  say  the  American  makers  express  themselves 
confident  of  being  able  when  the  occasion  arises  by  the 
slackening  of  home  demand  to  meet  competition  in  any 
part  of  the  world,  not  excepting  Great  Britain.  The 
designs  of  the  large  American  machine  tools  are  not  by  any 
means  copies  of  our  own,  except  so  far  as  the  origin  of  most 
heavy  macl lines  is  British.  There  are  a  good  many  features 
about  them  which  at  once  denote  independent  thought. 
In  regard  to  undue  lightness,  an  accusation  often  brought 
against  American  work,  there  is  certainly  an  impression 
given  of  this  nature  when  some  of  the  machines — I  am 
thinking  especially  of  the  planing  machines — are  looked 
at  end  on,  but  a  side  view  gives  quite  a  different  impres- 
sion. In  other  words,  the  metal  is  disposed  to  give 
rigidity  more  particularly  in  a  longitudinal  direction,  and 
it  is  longitudinal  stresses  that  have  to  be  met.  There 
are,  of  course,  other  equally  important  firms  in  the  United 
States  that  are  making  heavy  tools  and  bidding  for  export 
orders.  In  meeting  them  in  neutral  markets  British 
manufacturers  will  have  the  advantage  of  being  more 
within  their  own  peculiar  province,  but  there  can  be  little 
doubt,  whoever  gets  the  bulk  of  the  trade,  that  American 
makers  will  be  foemen  well  worthy  of  our  steel. 


JUNE  7,  1900. 

XIII.— MALLEABLE    CASTINGS,    AGRICULTURAL 
IMPLEMENTS,  AND  MACHINE-MADE  FILES. 

The  manufacture  of  what  are  known  as  malleable  iron 
castings  is  one  of  the  branches  of  engineering  production 
in  which  the  Americans  have  been  very  successful  and  to 
which  British  engineers  might  with  advantage  give  closer 
attention.  For  the  ordinary  mechanic  or  metallurgist  of  a 
past  generation  to  have  spoken  of  a  "  malleable  casting  " 


MALLEABLE   CASTINGS,    &c.  105 

would  have  seemed  a  contradiction  in  terms.  Malleable, 
or  forge,  iron  was  wrought  iron — that  is,  iron  smelted 
from  the  ore  in  the  blast  furnace,  cast  into  pigs,  and  then 
treated  in  the  puddling  furnace  to  remove  alloy.  Such 
iron  is  soft,  ductile,  and  has  considerable  tenacity.  It  can- 
not be  brought  to  a  fluid  state  by  any  means  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  engineer,  simply  becoming  "  pasty  "  when 
highly  heated.  Cast  iron,  on  the  other  hand,  is  readily 
melted,  and  is  therefore  easily  cast,  but  is  brittle  and  has 
low  tensility.  For  complicated  shapes  the  cheaper  method 
of  casting,  rather  than  forging,  is  desirable  ;  but  when  the 
part  has  to  withstand  blows,  as  opposed  to  steady  pressure, 
ordinary  cast  iron  cannot  be  used  with  safety. 

It  has,  however,  been  discovered  that  iron  castings 
can  be  made  largely  to  assume  the  properties  of  forgings 
by  annealing  ;  that  is  to  say,  by  subjecting  them  for  a 
considerable  period  to  a  moderate  red  heat  and  allowing 
them  to  cool  very  slowly.  The  process  is  a  most  interest- 
ing one  from  a  metallurgical  point  of  view.  In  the  most 
favourable  circumstances  a  malleable  casting  is  almost  as 
ductile  as  a  forging,  but  unfortunately  the  most  favourable 
circumstances  are  not  always  secured.  Not  only  may  the 
results  of  various  batches  from  the  annealing  furnace  be 
very  variable  in  quality,  but  individual  pieces  from  one 
annealing  may  show  considerable  disparity.  This  want  of 
what  is  technically  known  as  "  reliability  "  has  been  the 
great  drawback  to  the  use  of  malleable  castings.  Engi- 
neers say  they  dare  not  put  them  in  positions  of  trust,  and 
hence  the  more  costly  forged  and  machined  parts  must  be 
used.  In  England  we  have,  at  any  rate,  one  firm  which 
can  show  the  best  proof  of  success  in  this  direction  by 
having  more  orders  on  its  books  than  it  can  execute.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  large  number  of  malleable  castings  are 
coming  into  this  country  from  the  United  States.  That 
being  the  case,  the  subject  is  one  eminently  suited  to  our 
present  inquiry,  and  I  therefore  considered  myself  fortu- 
nate in  being  able  to  visit  two  or  three  malleable  iron 
foundries  in  the  United  States.  American  success 


106        AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

appeared  to  be  due  chiefly  to  knowledge  of  the  exact  com- 
position of  the  iron  and  to  the  proper  regulation  of  tem- 
perature in  annealing  operations. 

When  malleable  castings  are  used  for  automatic  train 

o 

couplers  they  are  put  to  one  of  the  stiffest  tests  they  are 
likely  to  undergo.  In  American  railway  practice  the 
coupler  and  buffer  are  in  one,  the  coupler  itself  taking  the 
impact  of  two  cars  coming  together.  It  will  be  easily 
understood,  therefore,  that  a  car  coupler  must  have  lost 
all  the  brittleness  of  cast  iron  and  have  become  exceedingly 
tough.  The  Buckeye  Malleable  Iron  and  Coupler  Company 
have  extensive  foundries  and  workshops  at  Columbus,  the 
capital  of  Ohio,  where  they  work  night  and  day  on  ten- 
hour  shifts  making  the  Buckeye  coupler,  producing  about 
600  a  day  of  24  hours.  The  coupler  body  is  a  massive  iron 
casting  of  intricate  form  that  certainly  could  not  be  made 
in  one  piece  by  forging,  but  is  comparatively  easy  to  cast. 
It  may  be  noted  here  that  the  malleable  cast  iron  made  at 
these  works  can  be  welded,  a  thing  that  appears  at  first 
altogether  extraordinary,  but  I  have  since  heard  that  it  is 
not  uncommon  with  American  malleable  castings  and, 
presumably,  British  productions  also  of  the  same  kind. 
What  is  even  more  remarkable  is  that  malleable  castings 
and  steel  are  welded  together  as  an  every-day  commercial 
transaction.  Such  things  cause  old-fashioned  engineers 
to  reconsider  the  axioms  of  their  youth.  The  Buckeye 
Company  have  the  advantage  of  natural  gas  for  annealing, 
and  they  keep  a  very  close  check  on  the  heat  of  their 
ovens.  At  their  works  only  charcoal  iron  is  used,  but 
coke-smelted  iron  is  employed  by  some  makers.  The 
absence  of  sulphur  is  undoubtedly  a  desirable  feature 
secured  by  smelting  with  charcoal. 

Major  Groodspeed,  the  managing  director,  spent  two 
years  and  a  good  deal  of  money — about  £7,000 — in  experi- 
menting to  discover  whether  annealing  could  be  done 
without  pots  or  boxes,  the  pieces  being  placed  in  the 
furnace  direct.  He  has  found,  among  other  things,  that 
by  packing  the  parts  to  be  annealed  in  a  special  kind  of 


MALLEABLE   CASTINGS,   &o.  107 

ore,  and  by  paying  considerable  attention  to  temperature 
and  cooling,  this  can  be  done.  I  understand  these  are  the 
only  works  in  which  the  practice  is  followed.  Some  car 
couplers  have  been  made  of  steel  ;  but  not  only  is  the 
iron  found  cheaper,  but  the  annealed  castings  are  more 
trustworthy.  The  annealing  here  is  continued  for  14  days, 
which,  I  think,  is  an  unusually  long  time,  but  the  castings 
ure  of  considerable  size.  The  mechanical  principle  of  the 
coupling  is  very  ingenious,  very  simple,  and  appears  most 
effective  in  locking  two  coaches  together  quite  automatic- 
ally, It  may  not  be  generally  known  in  England  that  on 
January  1  last  it  became,  by  law  of  the  United  States, 
compulsory  for  all  railway  stock  to  be  equipped  with 
automatic  couplings  and  brakes  ;  whether  it  has  been 
possible  to  enforce  the  law  without  paralysing  the  carrying 
trade  of  the  country  I  am  not  aware,  but  to  judge  by  the 
state  of  affairs  at  the  end  of  last  year  I  should  say  decidedly 
not.  Automatic  couplings  have  a  special  interest  for  us 
just  now,  as  it  is  proposed  to  make  them  compulsory  in 
this  country  also.  Those  who  are  acquainted  with  American 
railways  will  have  little  doubt  that  it  would  be  a  good 
thing  if  the  practice  could  be  introduced  here.  The 
American  engineer  has,  however,  a  comparatively  easy 
task,  for  his  trains  have  always  been  "  central  coupled  " 
and  "  central  buffed,"  whilst  all  our  rolling  stock,  as  every 
one  knows,  has  side  buffers.  A  very  promising  device 
has,  however,  been  invented  by  an  English  engineer,  by 
which  the  side  buffing  and  the  central  buffing  can  be  com- 
bined, or,  rather,  can  be  made  interchangeable,  and  whilst 
in  Columbus  I  saw  a  number  of  Buckeye  couplers  on  this 
principle  which  were  to  be  sent  to  England  to  be  fitted  on 
English  trains.  It  may  be  of  interest  to  add,  as  illus- 
trating the  growth  in  the  weight  of  trains,  that  nine 
years  ago,  when  the  Buckeye  coupler  was  first  introduced, 
a  pulling  strain  of  little  more  than  half  that  now  demanded 
was  considered  sufficient.  On  March  17,  1899,  a  train  of 
50  steel  cars  was  hauled  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Kail- 
road.  The  gross  weight  was  2,883  tons,  and  each  car 


108         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

carried  about  50  tons  of  coal.  This  is  said  to  have  been  the 
heaviest  train  ever  hauled  in  America,  and  was  fitted  with 
Buckeye  couplers. 

The  Pittsburgh  Malleable  Iron  Company  own  a  foundry 
of  the  same  description,  which  I  was  permitted  to  go 
through.  Here  the  operations  were  more  variable.  My 
attention  was  first  drawn  to  this  establishment,  as  to  some 
others  I  visited,  by  seeing  its  product  in  English  work- 
shops. It  was  at  the  works  of  a  Sheffield  maker  of  rail- 
way appliances  that  a  conversation  turned  on  the  depend- 
ence to  be  placed  upon  malleable  iron  castings,  and  by 
way  of  illustration  I  was  taken  to  a  large  heap  of  clips  made 
in  this  way  and  was  invited  to  select  any  number  and  put 
them  to  any  test.  I  tried  several,  bending  and  twisting 
them  in  a  way  that  would  have  severely  tested  wrought 
iron.  At  these  works  I  was  told  that  the  American  cast- 
ings were  not  only  cheaper  and  more  to  be  depended 
upon  than  any  others,  but  that  orders  were  more  regu- 
larly and  more  quickly  executed  when  the  goods  came 
from  across  the  Atlantic.  I  found  at  the  Pittsburg 
foundry  a  good  many  things  being  cast  for  which  we 
should  either  use  steel  or  iron  forgings.  The  moulding 
machinery  was  well  arranged  and  worked  by  compressed 
air.  The  iron  is  all  melted  in  gas-fired  furnaces.  Elec- 
tric motors  for  street  cars  and  Westinghouse  brakes  seemed 
to  account  for  a  large  part  of  the  output.  It  will  give  an 
idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  work  to  state  that  for  one 
engineering  establishment  alone  the  firm  hold  nearly  five 
thousand  different  patterns.  They  had  recently  made  a 
considerable  success  in  turning  out  rolling  mill  spindles 
weighing  from  700lb.  to  8001  b.  Spur  wheels  for  motor 
cars  were  cast  in  two  halves  and  bolted  together  on  the 
shaft.  By  using  these  castings  a  saving  in  weight  of  25 
per  cent,  was  obtained  over  ordinary  cast  iron,  with  addi- 
tional strength  and  regularity  of  product.  The  rims  of  the 
wheels  are  cast  in  blank,  and  the  teeth  to  form  the  gear- 
ing are  cut  out  by  special  milling  machines.  In  this  way 
very  close  and  quiet  running  gear  is  produced. 


MALLEABLE    CASTINGS,    &e.  109 

The  firm  attribute  their  success  chiefly  to  the  use  of 
proper  brands  of  pig  iron.  They  pay  a  great  deal  of  atten- 
tion to  composition,  making  analyses  continually.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  Mr.  Archer  Brown,  of  New  York,  said  he 
made  a  special  iron  for  malleable  castings,  and  presumably 
this  can  be  purchased  by  British  foundrymen  who  desire 
to  follow  up  a  branch  of  iron-founding  that  seems  to  offer 
a  promising  field  of  enterprise.  The  outlook  is  more 
encouraging,  as  there  are  several  improvements  that  might 
be  made  by  which  cost  of  production  could  be  reduced. 
Possibly  the  application  of  the  Le  Chatelier  pyrometer 
would  afford  a  valuable  aid  in  the  annealing  operations,  as 
by  it  the  temperature  of  the  furnace  could  be  ascertained 
at  any  time.  Sir  W.  Roberts- Austen  has  given  a  good 
deal  of  attention  of  late  to  this  beautiful  instrument,  and 
has  most  successfully  adapted  it  to  practical  metallurgical 
work.  At  this  foundry  the  men  work  ten  hours  night  and 
day,  being  rated  at  piece-work  wages.  As  in  a  good  many 
other  American  works,  they  have  half  an  hour  for  dinner, 
and  prefer  it  so,  as  in  this  way  they  get  off  at  half-past  5 
instead  of  6. 

In  the  manufacture  of  agricultural  implements  the 
Americans  have  always  held  a  prominent  position,  and 
many — I  do  not  know  whether  I  ought  to  say  most — of 
the  ingenious  devices  by  which  human  labour  has  been 
supplanted  by  mechanism  in  this  field  have  been  the 
characteristic  product  of  American  inventive  genius.  The 
subject  is  a  big  one,  but  only  a  few  words  can  be  devoted 
to  it  here.  On  my  way  to  Columbus  I  visited  the  works 
of  the  Warder  Bushnell  and  Grlessner  Company  at  Spring- 
field, Ohio.  They  make  only  three  kinds  of  machine — 
namely,  binders,  mowers,  and  reapers — thus  carrying  out 
the  prominent  American  characteristic  of  concentration  of 
effort  to  the  end  of  doing  one  thing  well.  The  works  are 
well  laid  out  with  special  automatic  machine  tools — ex- 
tremely interesting  to  an  engineer  to  see,  but,  mercifully, 
quite  impossible  to  describe.  One  department,  however, 
is  not  beyond  a  word  picture  ;  it  is  the  painting  shop. 


110         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

They  do  not  use  brushes,  or  even  the  more  modern 
"  painting  pump."  The  large  floor  of  the  shop  is  fitted  up 
with  a  series  of  tanks  having  the  appearance  of  small 
swimming  baths.  Overhead  there  are  the  lines  of  a  sus- 
pension railway.  The  tanks  are  filled  with  paint,  the 
articles  to  be  treated  are  run  in  on  the  railway,  are  lowered 
automatically  into  the  bath,  and  are  then  carried  off  to 
drip.  In  this  way  a  large  and  complicated  agricultural 
machine  can  be  painted  in  a  few  seconds. 

This  firm  has  doubled  its  output  during  the  last  four 
years,  and  they  are  extending  their  export  trade  in  Aus- 
tralia, South  Africa,  South  America,  Kussia,  and  in  Great 
Britain.  The  methods  of  manufacture  have  been  altering 
of  late  years,  wood  as  a  material  fast  giving  place  to  iron, 
the  difficulty  of  getting  good  timber  increasing  rapidly. 
This  is  interesting,  as  the  encroachments  of  Americans  on 
our  foreign  markets  in  this  field  used  to  be  attributed  to 
their  better  supplies  of  different  woods.  The  management 
of  these  works  attributes  their  success  chiefly  to  their 
better  practice  in  the  malleable  iron  foundry.  The 
McCormick  Harvesting  Machine  Company  have  enormous 
works  near  Chicago.  How  vast  is  their  establishment  may 
perhaps  be  best  told  by  saying  they  produce  1,200 
machines  every  ten  hours.  They  work  from  7  o'clock  to  12, 
then  take  half  an  hour  for  dinner,  and  close  at  5  30  p.m. 
I  was  informed  here  that  all  the  English  makers  combined 
do  not  make  one-tenth  of  the  number  of  the  machines 
they  produce ;  and  about  one-fifth  of  their  output  was 
sent  abroad  during  the  previous  year  (1898).  They  had 
received  an  order  from  one  firm  in  Paris,  Messrs.  K. 
Wallut  and  Co.,  for  12,000  machines.  I  asked  the  reason 
why  they  had  been  able  to  do  a  much  larger  foreign  trade 
than  the  British  makers,  and  will  give  the  reply  I 
received,  approximately  in  my  informant's  words  :— 

You  cannot  compete  with  us  in  this  trade,  first,  because  your 
system  of  agriculture  is  entirely  different  to  ours  ;  it  is  so  much 
smaller.  I  have  seen  a  man  in  England  leading  a  front 
horse  and  another  man  driving  the  horse  in  the  shafts  on  a 


MALLEABLE   CASTINGS,    &o.  Ill 

land  roller  ;  and  nothing  else  happening.  In  America  one  man 
would  be  driving  a  team  drawing  a  seeder  and  leading  another 
team  behind  with  a  drag  (or  harrow)  and  "another  team  with  a 
roller  behind  that  ;  all  managed  by  one  man.  Besides  this,  tho 
width  would  bo  probably  12ft.  instead  of  six.  You  have  not 
room  for  a  full-sized  procession  in  your  little  fields. 

You  have  been  sitting  in  that  chair  ten  minutes,  and  during 
that  time  we  have  finished  and  put  into  warehouse  20  reaping 
machines  or  field  mowers,  weighing  from  7001b.  to  l,5001b.  each. 
You  English  are  our  strongest  competitors  in  foreign  markets  ; 
but  the  Swedes 'and  Germans  are  creeping  up  every  day.  They 
copy  everything,  but  copying  will  never  get  more  than  the  dregs 
of  a  trade.  The  country  that  originates  will  always  be  ahead. 
Moreover,  it  is  no  good  copying  patterns  unless  you  copy 
methods  too.  If  a  German  buys  one  of  our  machines  and  tries 
to  make  it  he  is  met  by  difficulties  at  every  turn.  He  wants  our 
special  tools,  our  organization,  our  materials  ;  and  then  he  must 
produce  on  the  same  scale  we  do  to  get  the  same  economy. 

This  gentleman  also  made  reference  to  the  use  of 
malleable  iron  castings,  of  which  the  firm  probably  work 
up  a  greater  quantity  than  any  other  works  in  the  country, 
the  consumption  for  1898  being  over  18,000  tons.  It  was 
subsequently  pointed  out  to  me  elsewhere  that,  even  if  there 
were  no  difficulty  in  other  respects,  it  would  not  be  possible 
to  reproduce  the  American  machines  in  Europe  because 
the  practice  of  annealing  iron  castings  is  not  sufficiently 
advanced.  The  McCormick  Company  were  building  a  new 
foundry  1,487ft.  long  and  88ft.  wide,  in  which  they  would 
cast  250  tons  of  grey  iron  daily.  They  have  such  a  well- 
organized  system  of  moulding  by  special  apparatus  that 
only  five  skilled  moulders  will  be  needed  for  all  this 
immense  number  of  castings.  Ordinary  moulding,  by  the 
old-fashioned  hand  tools,  is  one  of  the  most  highly-skilled 
operations  in  engineering  practice  ;  and  perhaps  for  that 
reason  the  moulders  department  is,  in  some  works  in  this 
country,  the  most  difficult  to  manage.  The  gentleman 
who  gave  me  the  above  facts  had  been  with  the  firm  for 
13  years  and  had  seen  the  business  multiplied  fivefold  in 
that  time,  whilst  it  has  doubled  during  the  last  five  years. 

In  the  works — which,  by-the-by,  are  situated  right  in 
Sheffield— to  which  reference  has  been  made  as  using 


112         AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

American  malleable  castings  I  was  also  shown  a  number 
of  American  files,  and  when  in  Philadelphia  I  made  a 
point  of  visiting  the  Black  Diamond  File  Works,  whence 
these  tools  had  come.  I  was  not  very  sanguine  about 
getting  in,  as  I  had  had  previous  experience — not 
American — of  the  secrecy  with  which  the  manufacture  of 
files  is  carried  on.  However,  I  experienced  no  difficulty 
on  this  occasion,  the  statement  of  my  desire  to  inform 
English  engineers  how  files  are  made  in  America  at  once 
giving  me  the  attention  of  the  manager  of  the  works  in  an 
inspection  of  the  shops  where  files  are  all  cut  by  automatic 
machines.  Now  machine-cut  files  have  long  been  known  (and 
abused)  in  England  ;  and  years  after  they  were  in  common 
use  abroad  it  was  held  that  no  good  work  could  be  done  by  a 
file  that  was  not  hand  cut.  We  have  been  living  down 
that  prejudice  for  some  time  past,  but  the  legend  is  by  no 
means  extinct.  Moreover,  it  is  whispered  that  a  good 
many  of  the  machine-cut  tiles,  both  home  made  and  im- 
ported into  this  country,  used  formerly  to  find  their  way 
into  the  hands  of  dealers,  and  occasionally  during  transit 
became  so  mixed  that  they  reappeared  as  the  British  hand- 
cut  article.  I  give  no  support  to  this  scandal  ;  in  fact, 
having  had  some  experience  with  machine-cut  files  of  a 
past  era,  I  can  bear  testimony  that  any  one  accustomed  to 
using  a  hand-cut  file  would  know  if  he  were  given  one  pro- 
duced on  the  earlier  machines.  No  doubt  these  were  de- 
fective, but,  so  far  as  I  could  judge,  and  the  manager  of 
the  Sheffield  works  supported  this  most  unreservedly,  it 
would  now  be  impossible  to  detect  the  difference  between 
the  hand  and  machine  cut  files.  At  the  Philadelphia 
works,  which  are  the  property  of  Messrs.  Gr.  and  H.  Bar- 
nett,  I  found  two  large  buildings  full  of  machines  cutting 
files.  The  works  have  a  capacity  of  3,000  dozen  files  a 
day.  I  was  anxious  to  find  out  how  much  was  saved  by 
machine  cutting,  but  this  Messrs.  Barnett  could  not  inform 
me,  as  they  never  thought  about  cutting  files  by  hand.  I 
regretted  this,  as  it  is  still  said  in  Sheffield  that  a  prac- 
tised file-cutter  will  work  as  cheaply  as  a  machine  and 


TRANSIT   AND   COMMUNICATION.  113 

produce  a  very  much  better  result.  However  this  may  be,  the 
American  machine-made  files  are  finding  their  way  into 
Europe  and  our  colonies  in  ever-increasing  numbers,  large 
quantities  being  sent  from  the  works  under  notice  to 
Canada  and  Australia. 

It  would  be  utterly  impossible  to  describe  the  ingenious 
mechanism  by  which  the  work  is  done.  The  hand  cutter 
works  with  wonderful  rapidity,  and  almost  instinctively, 
his  delicate  sense  of  touch  enabling  him  after  long  practice 
to  give  just  the  right  blow  to  raise  the  tooth.  A  rigidly 
held  chisel  will  not  effect  the  latter  operation,  and  this 
was  the  stumbling  block  with  the  early  machines,  which 
earned  for  machine-cut  files  an  evil  character.  By  a 
mechanical  device  which  gives  an  elastic  hold  on  the 
cutting  chisel,  and  by  another  arrangement  which  strikes 
a  blow  of  the  same  nature  as  the  hand  hammer,  the  chisel 
is  made  to  follow  in  the  cut  and  raise  the  tooth.  The  old 
machines  simply  punched  a  hole  with  a  rough  edge. 

It  is  satisfactory  to  know  that,  though  the  Americans 
are  sending  files  across  the  sea  to  Sheffield,  they  are 
getting  a  good  deal  of  the  steel  for  making  the  tools  from 
Sheffield  ;  indeed,  the  number  of  places  in  which  I  found 
fine  Sheffield  tool  steel  was  a  very  satisfactory  feature.  A 
great  many  of  the  files  are,  however,  made  from 
"  domestic  "  steel.  The  manager  of  these  works  informed 
me  that  they  can  afford  to  import  steel  from  Eng- 
land and  use  a  better  quality  than  is  adopted  for  hand- 
cut  files,  and  yet  sell  at  a  lower  price,  because  so  much  is 
saved  in  labour  by  the  use  of  machinery,  although  the 
wages  paid  are  immensely  above  those  that  would  be 
received  in  England  by  workpeople  of  a  similar  class 


JUNE  9,  1900. 
XIV.— TRANSIT    AND    COMMUNICATION. 

There  are  a  few  other  things  to  be  considered  in 
studying  the  question  of  international  trade  competition 
besides  raw  material,  cheap  labour,  and  low  freights.  No 


114         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

doubt  the  conveyance  of  goods  is  a  most  important  factor 
in  the  problem,  but  hardly  less  important,  though  often 
overlooked,  is  the  transportation  of  passengers,  both  on 
long  and  on  short  journeys.  In  some  things  English  rail- 
ways are  superior  to  those  of  other  countries,  but  of  these 
it  is  not  my  intention  to  write.  The  object  of  these 
articles  is  to  point  out  circumstances  in  which  this  country 
is  deficient,  or  at  any  rate  from  which  we  can  learn  useful 
lessons  from  abroad.  Were  it  otherwise  I  might  correct 
some  fallacies  as  to  the  superiority  of  the  American  system 
of  checking  baggage,  and  point  out  the  delays  and  annoy- 
ances incidental  to  the  red-tape  procedure  of  the  United 
States.  I  might  also  say  something  as  to  the  shortcomings 
of  American  express  companies. 

If  the  English  railways  have  points  of  advantage,  I 
am  afraid  the  same  can  hardly  be  said  of  our  street 
passenger  traffic — putting  aside  the  hansom  cab,  certainly 
a  very  big  exception.  The  American  street  car  is  so 
greatly  superior  to  our  omnibus  and  tramcar  that  com- 
parison is  hardly  possible.  That  is  due  to  the  greater 
progress  in  America  than  in  Great  Britain  of  electric 
traction,  and  that  in  turn  appears  to  be  largely  owing  to 
our,  possibly,  well-intentioned  but  injudicious  and  hamper- 
ing legislation.  However  that  may  be  the  Ameiicans 
have  hundreds  of  miles  of  electric  railways  to  our  tens, 
and  many  of  the  lines  in  this  country  are  feeble  and  ill- 
equipped  compared  to  the  powerful  installations  of 
America.  In  1899  there  were  about  15,000  miles  of 
electric  railway  track,  and  about  40,000  electric  cars 
running,  in  the  United  States.  At  the  same  time  in 
England  we  probably  did  not  have  300  miles  of  line  in 
operation.  Wherever  one  goes  in  the  more  settled 
States,  and  also  in  many  parts  of  those  not  thickly  popu- 
lated, as  one  approaches  a  town  of  any  size,  there  are  the 
electric  railways  radiating  for  miles  out  into  the  surround- 
ing district.  They  run  along  the  main  streets  of  the 
cities  and  out  into  the  country,  over  roads  hardly  formed, 
across  fields,  upon  narrow  ledges  scarped  out  of  pre- 


TRANSIT   AND   COMMUNICATION.  115 

cipitous  liill  sides  (as  at  Pittsburgh),  up  banks  so  steep 
as  to  be  inaccessible  to  horse  traction,  over  slender 
viaducts  and  river  bridges — in  fact,  they  are  covering  the 
country  with  a  network  of  communication  that  is  making 
more  rapid  change  in  social  and  economic  conditions  than 
has  been  witnessed  since  the  introduction  of  the  steam 
locomotive. 

Inside  the  cities  the  influence  of  electric  traction  is 
as  fully  marked.  The  cars  go  everywhere.  A  man  wants 
to  settle  some  business,  to  see  his  lawyer,  or  his  doctor  a 
mile  or  two  away.  He  finds  out  by  telephone  whether  the 
person  is  at  home  and  then  steps  outside,  probably  finding 
a  car  passing  his  door  that  will  take  him  where  he  wishes 
to  go,  or,  at  any  rate,  close  by.  The  great  thing,  how- 
ever, is  that  when  he  is  in  the  car  he  knows  that  it  will 
keep  going  at  a  good  speed,  he  will  cover  the  mile  out  and 
the  mile  back  in  ten  minutes  or  so,  except  in  a  very 
crowded  thoroughfare,  like  Broadway,  New  York.  Let 
any  one  compare  this  with  what  happens  in  London,  where 
omnibuses  crawl  from  one  stopping  place  to  another, 
whilst  the  drivers  and  conductors  exert  all  their  ingenuity 
to  baffle  the  police  in  the  endeavour  to  keep  them  moving. 
A  few  days  ago  I  took  an  omnibus  near  the  west  end  of 
the  Strand  to  go  to  Westminster.  During  the  seven 
minutes  it  took  us  to  cover  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile — 
stopping  and  dawdling  all  the  time — we  were  pushing  the 
whole  of  the  overtaking  vehicles  out  into  the  middle  of  the 
street,  where  it  checked  the  east-bound  traffic  ;  in  fact, 
this  omnibus  practically  took  up  double  its  width  of  the 
narrowest  and  most  crowded  part  of  the  Strand  for  a  con- 
siderable space  of  time. 

When  people  talk  of  the  impossibility  of  running 
electric  cars  in  the  narrow  and  crooked  streets  of  London 
1  do  not  think  they  take  time  into  account.  An  electric 
car,  like  one  of  the  fine  cars  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  having 
doors  at  each  end  and  a  door  in  the  middle  (a  point  of 
great  importance  for  rapid  filling  and  emptying),  would 
clear  fifty  people  out  of  the  crowded  end  of  the  Strand  in 

H--2 


116        AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

one  minute,  whilst  it  took  my  omnibus,  with  a  capacity  of 
half  that  number,  seven  minutes  to  get  clear. 

Most  of  the  important  quick  traffic  in  London  is  done 
in  hansom  cabs,  and  if  we  compare  the  amount  of  obstruc- 
tion caused  or  the  area  occupied  by  a  passenger  in  a  tram- 
car  with  one  in  a  hansom  cab  the  difference  is  very 
striking.  Certainly  it  would  be  impossible  to  run  a  street 
railway  service  through  the  Strand  under  present  con- 
ditions ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  in  considering  this 
question  generally  that  cabs  and  omnibuses  would  prac- 
tically disappear  as  soon  as  electric  traction  made  its 
appearance,  and  much  of  the  heavy  traffic  might  be  ex- 
cluded within  certain  hours  from  some  of  the  more  crowded 
places  without  undue  hardship  to  any  one  ;  whilst,  un- 
doubtedly, some  corners  would  need  rounding  off.  In 
America  the  custom  is  common  of  sending  cars  proceeding 
in  opposite  directions  down  different  parallel  streets.  Thus 
east-bound  traffic  might  go  down  the  Strand,  Fleet-street, 
and  Ludgate-hill,  and  west-bound  traffic  along  the  Em- 
bankment and  Queen  Victoria-street.  The  suggestion  seems 
preposterous  to  Londoners  ;  perhaps  it  is.  1  am  not  pro- 
posing a  remedy,  I  am  only  drawing  a  parallel.  An  Ameri- 
can business  man  who  knows  London  almost  as  well  as 
New  York  recently  said  to  me  : — "  I  can't  understand  how 
you  folks  in  England  do  business  at  all.  If  our  telephone 
and  street  car  system  were  like  yours  half  of  us  would  have 
to  quit  work  to-morrow." 

The  ancient  city  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  affords  one 
parallel  to  our  narrow,  crowded  London  streets  ;  and  here 
the  Americans  have  solved  the  problem  of  quick  traffic  in 
a  very  effective  way.  The  electric  cars  run  out  on  the 
street  railways  to  and  from  all  parts  of  the  surrounding 
country  in  the  usual  manner,  but  when  they  get  to  the 
heart  of  the  city  the  lines  dive  underground  and  follow 
the  course  of  the  streets  just  below  the  surface.  It  is  as 
if  lines  ran  from  Dorking,  Reigate,  and  Guildford,  meeting 
in  the  Lambeth-road,  and  proceeded  across  Westminster- 
bridge  to  Whitehall.  Here  there  would  be  a  descent  into 


TRANSIT   AND   COMMUNICATION.  117 

a  tunnel,  which  would  take  the  line  of  the  Strand,  Fleet- 
street,  &c.,  meeting  other  tunnels  at  various  important 
points  and  with  frequent  stations.  It  is  the  completeness 
of  the  inter-communication  in  Boston  that  makes  this 
system  so  successful.  The  cars  run  singly,  not  in  trains, 
and  follow  each  other  up  in  the  stations  so  quickly  as  to 
be  almost  touching.  The  junctions  are  so  arranged  that 
the  passenger  can  "  transfer  "  to  get  from  any  one  part  to 
any  other  part,  and  seldom  is  there  a  wait  of  more  than  a 
minute  or  two.  The  tunnels  are  brilliantly  lighted  through- 
out and  the  stations  are  well  planned  so  that  the  arrival 
platform  for  one  line  is,  on  its  opposite  side,  the  departure 
platform  for  another.  These  tunnels  (or  rather  covered 
ways,  for  they  have  been  constructed  on  the  cut  and  cover 
principle)  being  only  just  beneath  the  surface,  the  plat- 
forms are  approached  by  very  few  steps.  It  may  be  that 
the  old  difficulty  of  gas  and  water  pipes  would  prevent  any 
scheme  of  this  sort  from  paying  in  London  ;  but  if  it  is 
really  impossible  to  introduce  mechanical  traction  into 
our  big  centres  of  industry  we  must  settle  down  to  the 
conviction  that  American  merchants  and  manufacturers 
have  a  trump  card  we  cannot  meet  in  the  great  game  of 
international  trade  competition. 

The  Bostonians  are  not  only  burrowing  underground, 
but  are  extending  upwards  with  their  traffic  facilities.  They 
have  under  construction  at  the  time  of  writing  au  over- 
head railway  like  those  in  New  York.  The  dock-side 
Overhead  Kail  way  of  Liverpool  is  a  somewhat  similar 
structure.  It  would  need  a  bold  man  to  suggest  such  an 
unsightly  erection  for  London  ;  but,  come  what  may, 
people  must  get  about  or  business  comes  to  a  standstill. 
It  may  be  that  some  day  the  foot  pavements,  or  side  walks 
as  the  Americans  call  them,  will  be  carried  on  steel  gal- 
leries in  our  most  crowded  thoroughfares,  so  that  the  street 
surface  will  be  left  entirely  to  vehicular  traffic.  In  that 
case  first-floor  windows  would  become  shop-fronts  ;  unless 
the  stores  system  grows  to  the  extinction  of  separate  shops 
—an  event  which  will  not  come  to  pass,  at  any  rate,  for  a 


118         AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

good  many  years  in  England,  though  "  department  stores  " 
are  growing  in  size  and  number  with  wonderful  rapidity  in 
America.  In  any  case  the  overhead  railway  is  such  a  dis- 
figuring thing  that  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  will  never  be  forced 
upon  us  in  this  country. 

The  way  in  which  business  breeds  business  is  seen 
plainly  in  a  rapidly  developing  country,  and  never  did  any 
country  develop  so  quickly  as  the  United  States  has 
within  the  last  three  years. 

I  have  already  described  the  works  of  the  E.  P.  Allis 
Company  at  Milwaukee — they  had  over  six  million  dollars' 
worth  of  orders  on  their  books  at  the  time  of  my  visit  — 
and  it  will  give  some  further  idea  of  the  increase  of  transit 
facilities  in  America  if  a  few  details  are  stated  respecting 
the  \\estinghouse  Electric  Company's  works,  it  being 
understood  that  they  do  not  by  any  means  stand  alone  in 
this  industry.  There  are  made  here  40  motors  for  street 
cars  a  day,  besides  a  large  number  of  electric  generators 
and  motors  constructed  for  factory  purposes  and 
electric  lighting.  When  the  Westinghouse  works  were 
transferred  to  East  Pittsburgh,  about  five  years  ago,  the 
volume  of  business  done  was  considerable,  about  2,500 
operatives  being  employed.  At  the  time  of  my  visit  there 
were  over  5,000  at  work  in  the  electrical  factory  alone. 
Besides  this  there  were  in  the  engine  shops  1,500  men, 
and  in  the  railway  brake  works  2,500  men.  It  was  thought 
at  the  time  of  the  removal  that  the  new  works  would  be 
large  enough  to  allow  the  business  to  be  doubled  without 
a  farther  extension.  The  main  shop  of  the  electric  works 
was  754ft.  in  length  and  231ft.  wide.  Along  each  side  of 
the  floor  ran  galleries  for  the  lighter  tools  each  80ft.  wide. 
That,  it  will  be  seen,  would  form  a  very  big  factory  in 
itself  ;  but  since  then  another  194ft.  has  been  added,  and 
still  the  work  has  so  increased  that  a  further  length  of 
268ft.  was  in  progress  last  October,  and  will  doubtless  be 
well  on  towards  completion  before  this  article  appears.  The 
other  buildings,  such  as  forge,  smiths'  shops,  &c.,  have 
been  increased  in  proportion.  I  saw  in  progress  5,000- 


TRANSIT   AND   COMMUNICATION.  119 

horse  power  electrical  generators,  which  I  think  are  the 
largest  machines  of  the  kind  ever  made.  Some  of  these 
were  for  the  St.  Lawrence  Construction  Company, a  power- 
distributing  venture  on  the  same  lines  as  the  Niagara 
power  scheme,  where  there  are  several  of  these  5,000-horse 
power  generators.  What  is  more  to  the  present  purpose 
there  were  16  generators,  each  of  4,000-horse  power 
capacity,  in  course  of  construction  for  the  Third  Avenue 
Kailroad,  New  York.  This  is  a  city  line  extending  16 
miles  from  the  post  office,  which  is  in  the  heart  of  the 
business  quarter  of  New  York.  The  power-house  is  at  the 
extremity  of  the  line.  Not  very  long  ago  it  would  have 
been  commercially  impossible  to  transmit  so  much  electric 
energy  over  this  great  distance.  It  is  satisfactory  to  know 
that  some  of  the  motors  in  these  works  are  supplied  with 
current  from  dynamos  driven  by  the  Parsons  Steam  Tur- 
bine, a  great  mechanical  invention  which  British  engineers 
may  fairly  be  proud  to  see  in  America  as  it  is  the  work  of 
one  of  their  number. 

There  are  other  electrical  works  of  enormous  capacity. 
The  General  Electric  Company,  for  instance,  have  a  truly 
wonderful  establishment  at  Schenectedy,  but,  much  to  my 
regret,  I  was  not  able  to  visit  it. 

For  street  railway  work  the  "single  car  unit"  is 
desirable,  although  in  Chicago  one  sees  trains  of  three 
cars  passing  through  the  streets.  I  think  I  have  seen 
four.  The  overhead  railway  has  been  erected  there  also, 
and  in  connexion  with  the  South  Side  Elevated  Eailroad 
there  has  been  introduced  a  new  system  of  opsrating 
trains  which  seems  likely  to  lead  to  important  results. 
This  is  known  as  "  the  multiple  unit  system,"  and  is  the 
invention  of  Mr.  Frank  J.  Sprague,  who  was,  I  believe,  the 
first  to  design  a  commercially  successful  electric  street 
railway.  For  railways  proper  (as  opposed  to  street  rail- 
ways) having  a  regular  scheduled  service  of  trains  the 
single  car  running  independently  is  evidently  not  so 
advantageous  as  the  multiple  unit  or  a  coupled  train  of 
cars.  With  the  steam  locomotive  long  trains  can  be 


120         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING   COMPETITION. 

hauled,  because  the  great  weight  of  boiler  and  engine 
gives  plenty  of  adhesion  to  the  driving  wheels.  The 
electric  motor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  comparatively  a  light 
thing,  and,  though  the  power  may  be  ample,  its  wheels 
lack  adhesion  to  drag  a  long  train.  It  is  therefore 
desirable  that  each  car  should  carry  its  own  motor,  so  as  to 
utilize  the  weight  of  the  car  itself  and  of  the  passengers 
for  giving  adhesion.  The  objection  to  this  formerly  was 
that  a  motor-man  was  needed  on  each  car.  Mr.  Sprague 
has,  however,  devised  a  system  by  which  a  number  of  cars 
can  be  operated  from  the  platform  of  any  one  of  them. 
At  Chicago  I  saw  a  photograph  of  a  13-car  train  operated 
in  this  way. 

At  the  central  station  of  the  line  I  was  told  that  the 
cost  for  power  was  rather  less  than  five  mills  (about  a 
farthing)  per  kilo-watt  hour.  The  generating  machines 
are  run  day  and  night,  storage  batteries  being  used  to 
equalize  the  load.  A  comparison  of  the  steam  loco- 
motive and  electric  traction  systems  has  been  made  from 
data  collected  from  the  working  of  the  South  Side  rail- 
way, and  the  ratio  of  expenses  to  earnings  was  87'3  for 
steam  as  compared  to  57*3  for  electricity. 

Mr.  Sprague,  speaking  from  an  engineering  point  of 
view,  told  me  he  was  convinced  the  time  had  come  for 
electric  traction  to  be  adopted  for  all  suburban  traffic 
around  London.  Making  every  allowance  for  the  engineer- 
ing parallel  of  the  fondness  of  the  shoemaker  for  leather, 
the  opinion  is  worthy  of  all  consideration  and  respect.  It 
is  difficult  to  imagine  the  South- Western,  the  Great 
Eastern,  or  other  lines  which  run  both  long  distance  and 
suburban  trains  having  a  mixed  steam  and  electric  service  ; 
but  in  America  this  has  already  been  done.  In  Connecti- 
cut I  travelled  several  miles  in  an  electric  car  run  on  the 
main  lines  intermediately  with  the  regular  steam-drawn 
trains.  It  is  a  rather  startling  thing  at  first  to  see  these 
single  cars  rushing  along  the  ordinary  railroad  at  high 
speed  with  no  visible  means  of  propulsion.  A  third  rail  is 
laid  between  the  two  ordinary  wheel  rails  and  this  acts  as 


.'      TRANSIT   AND    COMMUNICATION.  121 

a  conductor  for  the  electric  current,  which  is  picked  up 
and  taken  to  the  motor  on  the  car  by  suitable  mechanism. 
The  system,  I  understand,  has  worked  very  successfully, 
and,  in  spite  of  one  or  two  drawbacks,  is  considered  highly 
promising.  To  a  cautious  Englishman  one  of  the  most 
striking  of  the  drawbacks  is  thajt  the  naked  conductor  is 
laid  at  the  ground  level  and  the  tension  of  current  is  high. 
Now  American  railways  are  hardly  fenced  at  all,  and  grade 
crossings  are  frequent.  It  is  a  little  unsettling  to  see 
children  playing  on  the  side  of  the  track  and  also  using  it 
as  a  thoroughfare  to  and  from  school,  after  the  manner  of 
American  children  all  over  the  Union.  I  did  not  hear 
that  any  serious  mishaps  had  occurred  ;  but,  as  a  railway 
official  said,  "  The  management  don't  try  to  get  such 
things  into  the  papers."  I  did  hear,  however,  that  on  the 
previous  day  a  man  had  received  a  severe  shock  ;  with 
what  ultimate  result  did  not  seem  to  be  a  matter  to  excite 
curiosity,  as  he  was  only  an  Italian.  Besides,  he  was  much 
blamed  for  having  iron  nails  in  his  boots.  The  Americans 
hold  the  view  that  if  a  man  has  not  sense  enough  to  keep 
clear  of  a  third  rail  the  United  States  have  no  use  for 
him.  Our  Board  of  Trade  principles  are  not  popular 
there. 

On  the  subject  of  passenger  traffic  on  trunk  railroads 
much  has  been  written  in  the  past  and  more  yet  remains 
to  be  said  ;  but  it  need  not  be  said  here,  because  the  con- 
ditions to  be  met  in  the  two  countries,  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States,  are  so  different  that  there  must  neces- 
sarily be  differences  in  practice.  He  would,  however,  be 
a  very  prejudiced  or  very  patriotic  Englishman  (both 
names  are  often  applied  to  the  same  thing)  who 
would  deny  that  in  some  respects  the  Americans 
have  beaten  us  in  railway  practice.  For  this,  again, 
there  are  reasons.  The  early  American  engineers 
had  the  advantage  of  our  experience  ;  they  followed 
and  were  able  to  avoid  our  errors.  Thus,  they  have 
not  tunnels  and  station  platforms  that  prevent  their 
running  larger  coaches.  That  is  one  most  important  matter 


122         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

in  regard  to  the  comfort  and  appearance  of  the  interiors  in 
which  we  cannot  compete  unless  the  railway  companies  of 
the  kingdom  are  prepared  to  spend  a  sum  so  vast  that  it 
it  is  almost  beyond  contemplation.  As  to  the  much-dis- 
cussed question  of  the  superiority  or  otherwise  of  the  Eng- 
lish coaches  with  compartments,  as  against  the  American 
car  with  its  central  aisle,  all  one  can  say  is  every 
man  to  his  humour.  But  this,  I  think,  can  hardly 
be  said  of  women  too  ;  for,  as  far  as  my  experience  goes, 
they  prefer  the  big  open  car  to  the  privacy,  so  much 
prized  by  some,  of  the  English  carriage.  The  long  journeys 
which  have  to  be  undertaken  in  America  render  it  neces- 
sary that  there  should  be  more  elaborate  provision  for  the 
comfort  of  passengers,  and  the  more  rigorous  winters  make 
the  warming  of  trains  a  matter  that  cannot  be  neglected. 
In  the  important  trains  on  our  best  lines  sleeping  accom- 
modation is  very  good,  but  in  the  matter  of  heating  we 
are  wofully  behind,  although  some  efforts  have  been  made 
in  this  direction  of  late.  It  is  difficult  for  an  Englishman 
to  understand  the  feeling  of  an  American  arriving  for  the 
first  time  in  England  in  winter,  and  having  to  make  a 
railway  journey  by  any  train  other  than  a  London  express. 
The  dreary  waiting  rooms,  the  dingy,  cell-like  compart- 
ments, the  long  tunnels,  often  to  be  passed  through  in  un- 
lighted  carriages,  and,  above  all,  the  damp  biting  cold,  all 
serve  to  strike  terror  into  the  souls  of  the  delicately-nurtured 
men  and  women  of  the  United  States  ;  though  it  may  be 
these  things  serve  a  useful  purpose  in  hardening  the 
Briton. 

That,  however,  cannot  be  said  of  another  character- 
istic of  some  English  railways — their  unpunctuality. 
American  trains  are  not  invariably  punctual,  but  they  are 
far  more  to  be  depended  upon  to  keep  time  than  are  our 
own.  And  yet  the  Americans  haul  some  heavy  trains. 
The  Pennsylvania  Kailroad,  which  is  the  premier  line  of 
the  United  States  (and  I  am  almost  tempted  to  say  the 
best  managed  line  in  the  world),  runs  the  express  between 
New  York  and  Chicago  with,  I  understand,  almost  unde- 


TRANSIT   AND   COMMUNICATION.  123 

viating  punctuality.  It  may  consist  of  eight  cars,  weigh- 
ing alone — without  passengers  or  luggage — about  330 
tons.  The  speed  of  the  Chicago  express  trains  will  average 
between  44  and  50  miles  per  hour  on  the  section  between 
Jersey  City  and  Philadelphia, but  the  weight  is  not  always 
so  great  as  that  given.  Another  celebrated  train  on  the 
Pennsylvania  system  is  the  Congressional,  Limited,  which 
generally  consists  of  six  cars  weighing,  empty,  about  312 
tons  ;  and  which  on  the  227  miles  between  Jersey  City 
and  Washington  will  average  46  to  47^  miles  an  hour. 
Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  running  is  done  between 
Philadelphia — or  rather  Camden,  which  is  to  Philadelphia 
what  Birkenhead  is  to  Liverpool,  but  with  the  Delaware  in 
place  of  the  Mersey — and  Atlantic  City,  a  seaside  "  re- 
sort." The  scheduled  time  for  the  run  between  these 
points,  58-3  miles,  is  55  minutes.  This  service  illustrates 
the  stimulating  effect  of  competition,  for  the  Philadelphia 
and  Heading  have  an  almost  similar  train.  On  occasions, 
however,  the  scheduled  time  has  been  greatly  exceeded. 
For  instance,  on  July  31  last  the  running  time  was  50  J 
minutes,  or  at  a  speed  of  69*3  miles  a  hour  for  the  whole  dis- 
tance. On  that  occasion  there  were  eight  cars,  in  them- 
selves weighing  236  tons,  besides  which  there  were  369 
passengers.  On  this  run  the  distance  between  Winslow 
Junction  and  Drawbridge,  30*6  miles,  was  accomplished  in 
22  JT  minutes,  or  at  the  rate  of  81*6  miles  an  hour, and  that 
between  Winslow  Junction  and  Absecon,  24'9  miles,  in  18 
minutes,  or  at  the  rate  of  83  miles  an  hour.  On  Septem- 
ber 22  last  they  made  a  speed  of  93'5  miles  an  hour  for 
18'7  miles,  but  this  was  with  a  lighter  load,  having  only 
five  coaches  and  152  passengers.  On  the  latter  run  a 
speed  of  92  miles  an  hour  was  made  for  16  miles  and  93 
miles  for  10  miles.  There  was,  however,  evidently  a  check, 
as  the  total  average  time  was  only  at  the  rate  of  6 7 -2 
miles  an  hour.  The  engine  that  draws  this  train  has  two 
pairs  of  driving  wheels  each  80in.  in  diameter,  a  leading 
four-wheel  bogie,  and  a  pair  of  trailers.  The  cylinders  are 
20  Mn.  diameter  by  26in.  stroke.  The  steam  pressure  is 


124         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

1851b.  per  square  inch.  The  grate  area  is  no  less  than 
69  1-3  square  feet.  The  heating  surface  of  the  tubes 
alone  is  2,102  square  feet,  in  addition  to  which  there  is 
the  surface  of  the  fire  box,  which  is  of  unusually  large 
dimensions. 

The  passenger  stock  of  the  American  railways  is  no 
less  interesting  than  the  locomotives.  The  system  upon 
which  the  railroad  companies  work,  in  conjunction  with 
car-owning  firms,  is  well  known  in  this  country  in  con- 
nexion with  the  name  of  Pullman. 

In  many  respects  Pullman  near  Chicago  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  places  in  America.  It  is  as  a  whole — 
the  works  and  the  town — a  curious  mixture  of  the  practical 
and  the  ideal.  The  late  Mr.  Pullman  was  a  man  of  re- 
markable business  capacity.  Having  amassed  a  very 
handsome  fortune,  and  holding  the  destinies  of  a  large 
number  of  people  in  his  hands,  he  essayed  to  make  them 
happy  by  compelling  them  to  be  good.  Like  most  strong 
men  and  earnest  workers  in  this  direction  he  raised  up  a 
good  many  opponents,  and  his  motives  were  often  mis- 
understood or  wilfully  misrepresented.  No  doubt  if  he 
had  simply  gone  his  way  and  let  his  workpeople  go 
theirs,  without  bothering  himself  about  their  morals  and 
domestic  affairs,  he  would  have  had  less  worry  during  his 
life  and  fewer  detractors  after  his  death. 

I  spent  a  considerable  time  at  Pullman  and  accumu- 
lated material  enough  to  write  a  treatise  on  car  building  ; 
but  it  only  bears  indirectly  on  the  engineering  competi- 
tion of  the  United  States.  Yet,  though  the  bearing  may 
be  indirect,  it  is  not  trivial.  It  may  seem  at  first  glance 
a  small  matter  industrially  whether  passengers  are  carried 
more  or  less  comfortably  from  town  to  town  and  city  to 
city.  That,  I  venture  to  say,  is  a  superficial  view.  The 
business  success  of  Americans  is  largely — very  largely — 
due  to  the  enormous  extent  to  which  they  move  about. 
I  imagine  a  Chicago  merchant  thinks  less  of  the  thousand- 
mile  run  to  New  York  than  a  Londoner  does  of  two 
hundred  miles  to  Liverpool  or  Manchester.  The  Pullman 


ME   LABOUR  QUESTION.  125 

Company  have  had  not  a  little  to  do  with  all  this,  and 
they  are  still  working  on  the  same  lines  as  vigorously  as 
ever.  In  October,  1899,  they  employed  7,152  persons, 
of  whom  only  2,906  were  native  Americans. 

Next  to  the  magnitude  of  the  operations  here  I  think 
the  feature  that  impressed  itself  upon  me  most  was  the 
beauty  and  sterling  value  of  the  decorative  work  done. 
The  money  that  is  spent  on  interior  decoration  appears 
more  than  lavish.  I  questioned — as  I  had  before  in 
British  shipyards  where  Atlantic  liners  are  built — whether 
all  this  expenditure  on  ornamentation  was  not  excessive 
and  wasteful.  "  Would  not  passengers  rather  pay  less 
and  have  less  magnificent  surroundings  ?  "  The  answer 
was  conclusive  in  vindicating  the  policy  of  the  Pullman 
Company.  "  We  exist,"  they  said,  "  on  the  preference  of 
the  public  for  costly  and  artistio  surroundings  whilst 
travelling.  The  more  beautiful  and  the  more  comfortable 
we  make  our  cars  the  more  successful  we  are  in  our  ulti- 
mate aim — a  good  balance-sheet."  But  beyond  this,  I  think 
it  may  be  said  that  there  is  an  economic  side  to  this 
luxurious  travelling.  For  instance,  a  business  man  may 
feel  he  ought  to  make  a  two  or  three  hundred  mile  run, 
but  under  the  old  conditions  he  would  shirk  the  dreary 
monotony  of  the  journey. 


JUNE  11,  1900. 
XV.— THE  LABOUR  QUESTION.— I. 

Those  who  control  the  manufacture  of  commodities  in 
Great  Britain  have  already  found  that,  with  the  disappear- 
ance of  a  practical  monopoly  in  some  of  the  world's 
markets,  they  have  had  to  attack  many  problems  in  quite 
different  fashion.  The  chief  of  these  has  been  the  labour 
problem,  which  is  a  subject  of  such  paramount  importance 
that  it  should  occupy  the  best  attention  in  discussing  the 
question  of  foreign  competition. 

The  recent  successes  of  our  foreign  rivals  are  often 
attributed  by  employers  to  the  conduct  of  British  working 


12G         AMElttOAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

men,  or  rather,  perhaps,  to  the  trade  unions  which  repre- 
sent them.  We  hear  of  absurd  yet  most  damaging  restric- 
tions on  labour — that  one  man  may  attend  only  to  one 
machine ;  that  a  certain  low  speed  of  output  must  not  be 
exceeded — of  shop  stewards,  the  secret  police  who  enforce 
the  unwritten  law  of  the  unions ;  of  demarcation  of  work, 
which  prevents  a  man  of  one  trade  from  attempting  the 
most  trivial  operation  outside  an  exact  boundary  of  his 
calling;  and  of  many  other  hampering  limitations  which 
retard  work  and  run  up  its  cost  to  an  extent  altogether  in- 
credible to  those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  the  inner 
working  of  engineering  workshops. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  all  these  things  exist,  though 
to  a  somewhat  modified  degree  since  the  great  engineering 
strike.  The  employers  say  the  fault  is  with  the  men.  But 
it  may  be  questioned  whether  the  masters  are  not  more  to 
blame,  for  the  reason  that  they  are  more  educated  and 
their  opportunities  have  been  greater.  The  average 
working  man  is  not  much  given  to  systematic  examination 
of  economic  problems  ;  he  jumps  to  conclusions,  and 
having  once  made  up  his  mind  he  is  very  difficult  to  move. 
Trade-union  methods,  on  the  surface,  are  for  his  good  ;  so 
much  so  that  many  persons  of  education  and  position, 
having  little  practical  knowledge  of  the  subject,  are  led 
to  think  the  same  thing.  Employers  of  labour,  with  a 
wider  horizon  than  the  working  man  and  having  also  that 
actual  experience  which  the  academic  student  lacks,  see 
in  the  more  objectionable  methods  of  the  unions  a  danger 
to  trade  which  must  be  destroyed  or  it  will  itself  destroy 
manufacturing  industry. 

We  have  in  trade-union  restrictions  an  enemy  to  both 
men  and  masters,  but  the  masters  see  it  in  its  true  colours 
while  the  men  look  on  it  as  a  friend.  It  is  plainly  the 
duty  of  the  masters  to  meet  this  common  foe ;  to  combine 
together  and  make  such  present  sacrifice  as  may  be 
needed  for  future  gain,  to  act  loyally  towards  each  other 
without  selfish  considerations  for  individual  profit.  In 
place  of  these  things,  what  have  we  seen  ? 


THE   LABOUR   QUESTION.  127 

When  the  great  strike  in  the  engineering  trade  com- 
menced about  two  years  ago  many  people  agreed  with  Mr. 
John  Burns — who  were  not  otherwise  of  his  way  of 
thinking — that  it  would  be  over  in  a  very  short  time 
because  "  the  employers  would  not  hang  together."  It 
was  said  that  the  engineerimg  firms  had  not,  in  recent 
times,  thoroughly  supported  each  other,  and  that  they 
were  not  likely  to  do  so  then.  The  trade-union  tyranny 
had  been  allowed  to  grow  up  and  flourish  because  the  firms 
had  been  too  jealous  or  too  greedy  to  help  one  another 
loyally.  This  was  what  was  said ;  it  was  a  severe  view 
but,  it  must  be  confessed,  was  not  without  foundation. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  workmen  have  shown  a 
remarkable  solidarity — a  virtue  one  would  admire  more  if 
it  were  not  for  a  memory  of  pressure  that  union  leaders 
are  able  to  exercise  by  picketing  and  by  their  control  of 
the  sick  and  pension  funds. 

Two  years  ago  matters  had  come  to  such  a  pass  that 
engineering  firms  found  themselves  with  their  backs  to  the 
wall,  and  the  clear  fact  before  them  that  they  must  fight 
for  existence  ;  that  they  must  sink  personal  interest  and 
act  together  for  the  common  good.  Fortunately  in  the 
late  Colonel  Dyer  a  leader  appeared  strong  enough  to  hold 
them  together.  That  being  granted  success  was  assured. 
Unfortunately,  though  some  points  have  been  conceded, 
the  spirit  of  militant  trade  unionism  remains;  the  old 
slothful  habits  it  has  engendered,  the  obstructive  tactics 
it  favours,  still  exist.  It  is  not  suggested  that  there  are 
no  strikes  in  America.  That  would  be  flying  in  the  face 
of  recorded  facts,  for  there  have  perhaps  been  more  serious 
riot  and  bloodshed  in  recent  years  in  the  United  States 
than  in  Great  Britain  in  connexion  with  labour  disputes. 
The  point  is  that  employers  have  not  meekly  allowed 
control  to  pass  out  of  their  hands  and  tamely  submitted 
to  restriction  of  output  and  to  general  inefficiency,  as  the 
British  employer  has. 

If  there  is  one  thing  more  plainly  revealed  than 
another  by  being  brought  into  contact  with  American 


128         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

engineering  factories — and,  indeed,  the  factories  of  any  of 
our  chief  rivals — it  is  that  the  rule  of  militant  trade 
unionism  must  be  broken.  And  this  applies  not  only  to 
export  trade  but  to  our  home  trade  as  well,  unless  we 
protect  ourselves,  as  the  Americans  have  done,  by  import 
duties — a  course  that  need  not  be  contemplated.  In 
dealing  with  this  matter  plain  speech  is  a  necessity.  A 
custom  has  grown  up  of  speaking  of  the  trade-union 
system  as  something  almost  sacred  and  that  must  not  be 
assailed.  This  had  its  origin  in  political  considerations, 
for  working  men  are  many,  and  have  votes.  It  was 
strengthened  by  constant  repetition  and  by  the  fallacy 
that  all  the  improvements  in  the  pay  and  position  of  work- 
men were  owing  to  their  trade  societies,  instead  of  being 
the  natural  outcome  of  higher  productive  capacity,  which 
in  turn  has  been  due  to  invention  and  the  organization  of 
capital,  or,  in  other  words,  the  progress  of  the  factory 
system.  If  the  unions  had  remained  what  they  were 
originally  intended  to  be — benefit  societies — the  regard 
paid  to  them  would  be  worthy  of  observance  ;  but  militant 
trade  unions  have  been  the  chief  means  of  stopping  the 
advance  of  British  engineering  industry,  and  in  the 
interests  of  the  men,  as  well  as  of  the  rest  of  the  nation, 
their  unreasonable  and  pernicious  rule  must  be  suppressed. 

Although,  as  has  been  said,  since  the  termination  of 
the  great  strike  the  executives  of  the  unions  have  been 
more  reasonable  than  they  were,  the  old  ambitions  are 
still  cherished,  the  old  fallacies  are  yet  unshaken.  It  only 
needs  a  period  of  recovery  and  then  a  favourable  oppor- 
tunity for  the  spirit  of  two  years  ago  to  break  out  again. 
What  that  spirit  is  may  be  learned  from  the  most 
authentic  source,  the  official  journal  of  the  Amalgamated 
Society  of  Engineers,  the  great  trade  union  that  led  the 
strike.  At  the  risk  of  a  little  repetition  I  will  go  further 
into  a  subject  that  forms  one  of  the  chief  features  in  our 
present  inquiry. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  emphasize  again  the  fact 
that  one  of  the  chief  advantages  the  United  States  manu- 


THE   LABOUR   QUESTION'.  129 

fcicturer  possesses  is  the  use  of  labour-saving  machinery  ; 
indeed,    that    and    free    labour   are   the   foundations   of 
American     manufacturing     success.     The     British    trade 
unions   have  been   accused  of  opposing   progress  in  this 
field,  and   the  accusation   has   been   indignantly  repelled. 
We  will,  however,  turn   to  an  "  editorial  "  of  the   trade- 
union  journal  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  and  we 
find  a  programme   sketched   out  which,  it  is  said,  "  would 
assist   in   that   .alteration   of  the   competitive  system  ot 
industry  which  is  now  embodied  in  the  rule  book  as  one 
of  the   objects  of  the  society.     Its  accomplishment  may, 
and  we  believe  will,  involve  the  registering  of  trade-union 
desires   by  the   force  of  legal   enactment,  and  the  better 
utilization  of  public  bodies  than  has  yet  been  endorsed. 
For    labour-displacing     machinery    means     an    ever- 
increasing  obstacle  to  be  faced."     The  italics  are  not  in 
the  original  passage.     In  the  same  issue  of  this  official 
mouthpiece  of  the  engineers'  trade  union  in  the  "  General 
Office  Report  "  may  be  found  an  account  of  a  trade  dispute 
— a  dispute  which  made  some  stir  at  the  time — at  Earle's 
shipbuilding   and    engineering    works  at    Hull.     "  Oar 
members,"  the  journal  says,   "  after   a   strike   maintained 
with  a  pertinacity   beyond   all    praise,    have  forced  recog- 
nition of  the   principle  that   machines   which    supersede 
hand- skilled  labour  should  be  manipulated  by  skilled   and 
full-paid  men."  The  uselessness  of  an  employer's  purchas- 
ing  machines  which  supersede  hand-skilled  labour  if  they 
must  be  manipulated  by  skilled  and  fully-paid  men  hardly 
needs   insisting  upon.     In  the  Glasgow  secretaries'  report 
in  the  same  issue  of  the  journal  it  is  said: — "The  machine 
question  has  also  been  prominently  to  the  front   all    over 
the  district,  more  especially  as  regards   horizontal    borers 
and  band-saws.  There  seems  to  be  a  determination  on  the 
part  of  the  employers   to   put   labourers   to  this  class  of 
tools."     A  few  pages   further   on  the  Manchester  district 
delegate  says  : — 

With   a  view  to  checking  the  employment  of  labourers  on 
mechanics'  work,    the   district   committee  drafted  the  appended 

I 


130        AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

restricted  by-law,  viz.  : — "  All  such  work  as  erecting  or  fitting 
cisterns,  caulking  same,  erecting  pillars,  girders,  and  gutters, 
fitting  cast-iron  pipes  that  have  joints  with  bolts,  rubber  rings, 
&c.,  also  marking  off  or  drilling  any  kind  of  work  that  requires 
fitting  or  fixing  to  any  portion  on  iron,  and  all  fitting  and  chip- 
ping on  such  work,  must  be  done  by  skilled  mechanics,  and  in  all 
.cases  where  labourers  are  required  to  assist  in  the  above  jobs 
they  must  be  under  the  direction  of  a  duly  qualified  mechanic." 

Now  it  is  very  evident  that,  other  things  being  equal, 
a  manufacturer  who  is  forced  to  employ  skilled  and  highly- 
paid  men  cannot  compete  with  another  who  is  at  liberty 
to  get  the  work  done  at  a  lower  rate  of  pay  by  a  competent 
labourer.  This,  however,  only  tells  half  the  tale,  for  the 
highly-paid  "  tradesman  "  is  compelled  by  his  union  not 
to  do  more  than  a  certain  amount  of  work  in  a  given  time, 
whilst  the  "  labourer  "  is  free  to  do  his  best.  How  import- 
ant this  consideration  is  will  be  gathered  by  what  follows 
later. 

Another  instance  of  the  manner  in  which  work  is  ren- 
dered unduly  expensive  is  given  in  the  same  issue  of  the 
Amalgamated  Society's  journal.  It  refers  to  the  "  per- 
nicious practice  "  of  labourers'  doing  the  scraping  needed 
in  making  machine  tools ;  but  the  incident  is  so  instructive 
that  I  will  give  the  facts  in  brief.  After  the  strike  of  1852 
an  important  firm  of  machine  tool  makers  of  Leeds — 
Messrs.  Smith,  Beacock,  and  Tannett — became  a  "  non- 
union shop  " — that  is  to  say,  they  expressed  their  intention 
of  employing  any  men  they  wished  who  desired  to  work  to 
perform  any  operations.  In  "  union  shops"  the  proprietors 
are  debarred,  by  mutual  agreement,  from  giving  work 
"  claimed  by  the  trade  "  to  men  who  are  not  members  of 
the  particular  trade  union  governing  the  work  in  question. 
It  is  a  matter  to  which  reference  will  be  again  made  in 
dealing  with  demarcation  of  work.  Messrs.  Smith,  Beacock, 
and  Tannett,  being  free  of  trade -union  control,  employed 
labourers  to  do  the  scraping  of  surfaces,  an  operation  re- 
quiring a  certain  amount  of  skill.  So  long  as  this  firm 
remained  in  business,  theirs  "  being  practically  a  non- 
union shop,  the  power  to  eradicate  the  evil  was  wanting," 


THE   LABOUR   QUESTION.  131 

to  quote  again  from  the  society's  journal.  But  when  a 
union-controlled  works  took  over  the  shops  the  district 
delegate  exercised  his  power.  The  following  is  the  account 
of  the  transaction  taken  from  his  report  to  headquarters: — 

The  district  committee  and  myself  determined  to  resist  the 
re-establishing  of  the  pernicious  practice.  I  wrote  to  the  firm 
requesting  the  removal  of  the  men.  My  communication  being 
ignored,  on  October  19  I  notified  that  if  the  labourers  were  not 
removed  off  the  works  on  or  before  the  22nd  all  our  members  in 
their  employ  would  cease  work  on  that  date.  That  fetched  an 
invitation  to  an  interview,  to  which  the  district  secretary  and 
myself  responded,  and  for  two  hours  warmly  discussed  the  ques- 
tion at  issue  with  the  two  principal  members  of  the  firm,  who 
declined  to  be  dictated  to  as  to  the  lines  on  which  to  run  their 
business. 

The  result  was  a  strike,  which  stopped  work  and  threw 
a  large  number  of  men  out  of  employment. 

On  the  third  day  the  firm  requested  another  interview,  at 
which  they  informed  us  the  labourers  had  voluntarily  left  the 
job.  We  intimated  that  alone  was  not  sufficient  to  terminate  the 
dispute  ;  we  required  that  neither  the  men  who  had  caused  the 
trouble  nor  any  others  of  the  same  kind  would  henceforth  be 
employed  on  litters' work.  We  ultimately  received  the  guarantee, 
and  the  whole  of  the  men  resumed  work  next  morning.  I  have 
since  had  to  visit  the  firm  over  one  of  the  labourers  previously 
referred  to  assisting  a  non-society  turner  to  file  shafting.  On 
this  occasion  Mr.  Greenwood  assured  me  that  our  request  for 
these  men  being  confined  to  their  proper  sphere  of  labour  would 
be  adhered  to,  and  whilst  I  was  present  the  manager  was  in- 
structed on  the  lines  he  was  to  work. 

The  trade  union  not  only  aspires  to  decide  what  men 
shall  be  employed,  and  how  work  shall  be  allocated,  but 
also  to  settle  what  foremen  shall  be  put  in  charge  of  the 
work.  There  is  an  amusing  instance,  one  among  many, 
of  this  kind  of  thing,  though  not  having  to  do  with  a  fore- 
man, a  page  or  two  further  on  in  the  same  journal,  a  firm 
being  "  visited"  because  a  man  "  possessing  no  technical 
knowledge,  he  having  previously  been  a  grocer,"  had 
interfered  with  "  our  members." 

The  last  case  I  will  quote  from  this  one  issue  of  the 
journal  is  that  of  Daniel  Smith,  an  employer  who  appears 


i&2         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

to  have  been  of  different  stamp  to  some  others.  He  had 
put  a  driller  to  the  boring  machine  and  a  labourer  to 
fitting,  and  was  duly  remonstrated  with  by  "  our  men." 
Ultimately  there  was  a  strike,  but  not  before  Mr.  Smith 
had  posted  the  following  announcement : — 
Notice  to  Employes  of  these  Works. 

In  consequence  of  the  inconsiderate,  selfish,  uncharitable, 
and  uncalled-for  interference  of  a  small  section  of  our  employes 
endeavouring  to  force  us  to  inflict  an  injustice  and  deprive  other 
men  of  their  liberty  or  right  to  progress  in  higher  branches  of 
our  trade,  we  consider  it  necessary  to  make  the  following 
announcement  : — • 

It  is  our  firm  intention  from  this  date  to  have  whomsoever 
we  choose,  put  them  to  whatever  kind  of  work  we  think  fit,  and 
pay  such  wages  as  are  mutually  agreed,  without  any  dictation  or 
interference  on  the  part  of  any  of  our  workmen. 

No  discussion  or  interview  relating  to  society's  rules  will 
be  allowed  during  working-hours. 

DANIEL  Surra. 


JULY  10,  1900. 
XVI.— THE   LABOUR    QUESTION.— II. 

Demarcation  of  work,  to  which  reference  has  already 
been  made,  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  questions  an 
employer  has  to  face.  In  fact,  trade-union  rules  have 
made  the  problem  actually  insoluble  for  the  masters,  as 
will  appear.  There  are,  in  most  industries,  a  certain 
number  of  separate  trade  unions  or  societies  each  taking 
a  particular  division  of  work  under  its  control.  Thus, 
there  is  the  Amalgamated  Engineers'  Society,  which  deals 
with  machine-work,  fitting,  &c.,  and  there  is  the  Boiler- 
Makers'  Society,  which  deals  with  boilermaking  and  ship- 
building work.  Now  it  is  very  often  impossible  to  draw  the 
line  of  demarcation  between  two  trades,  and  the  employer, 
however  docile  he  may  be  in  submitting  to  the  rules  of 
the  different  unions,  finds  it  impossible  to  please  one 
without  quarrelling  with  another.  For  instance,  it  may 
be  difficult  to  say  where  a  fitter's  work  stops  and  the 
plumber's  begins,  as  was  illustrated  by  a  notable  dispute 


TiiE   LAEOUE   QUESTION.  1&J 

in  Sunder  land  ;  or  when  a  plasterer  should  make  room  for 
a  bricklayer,  as  in  the  quarrel  in  connexion  with  terra-cotta 
work;  or  just  where  the  dividing  line  between  engineer- 
ing and  boilermaking  should  be  drawn.  An  example  of 
the  latter  kind  occurred  at  Barrow  and  is  dealt  with  in 
the  Amalgamated  Society's  Journal.  It  was  "  an  encroach- 
ment by  boilermakers,  who  have  taken  the  fixing  of  damper 
gear."  Now  a  damper  is  certainly  a  part  of  a  boiler,  so, 
if  the  mechanics  had  been  put  on  to  the  task,  the  boiler- 
makers  might  just  as  reasonably  have  referred  to  it  as  "  an 
encroachment." 

Another  instance,  so  absurd  as  to  be  hardly  credible, 
not  taken  from  the  journal  but  from  another  source,  was 
that  of  a  Leeds  traction-engine  maker  who  was  called  upon 
to  prevent  drivers  from  doing  fitters'  work,  such  as  adjust- 
ing brasses  when  miles  away  from  an  engine  shop.  One 
driver,  in  putting  in  a  new  set  of  fire  bars,  had  to  chip  a 
bit  off  the  end  of  one  to  make  it  fit,  and  was  wained  to 
desist  as  it  was  fitters'  work,  and  an  engine  diiver  was  not 
a  fitter. 

The  notable  case  of  the  Thornycroft  boilers  is  per- 
haps even  more  instructive.  The  Thornycroft  boiler,  as 
is  well  known,  is  made  chiefly  of  pipes,  whilst  ordinary 
boilers  consist  mainly  of  steel  shells  riveted  together.  It 
is  the  business  of  fitters  to  join  pipes,  and  when  Mr. 
Thornycroft  first  made  his  water-tube  boiler  he  gave 
litters  the  work.  This  went  very  well  for  a  time,  until 
the  boilermakers  woke  up  and  declared  that  men  not  of 
their  union  should  not  make  boilers.  "  Very  well,"  said 
Messrs.  Thornycroft,  "  let  the  boilermakers  take  over 
the  work  as  soon  as  they  can  learn  how  to  do  it." 
Here,  however,  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Engineers, 
of  whom  the  fitters  form  a  branch,  stepped  in,  saying  : — 
"  No  ;  pipes  are  pipes,  \\  hether  in  boilers  or  out  of  them, 
and  we  claim  all  pipe  work.  If  you  let  a  boilermaker 
touch  pipes,  we  go  out  !  "  The  boilermakers  were  equally 
emphatic.  "  If  you  let  fitters  touch  boiler  work  we  boiler- 
makers  will  go  out."  As  either  alternative  meant  stopping 


134         AMERICAN   ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

the  business  of  the  yard,  Messrs.  Thornycroft  begged  the 
unions  to  settle  the  matter  between  them  ;  but  this  the 
unions  would  by  no  means  do.  At  the  time  the  dis- 
pute arose  there  were  several  boilers  completed  for  a 
foreign  Government,  and  these  the  makers  were  under 
penalty  to  deliver  by  a  certain  date.  The  boilers  only  re- 
quired testing,  but  testing  is  a  job  that  must,  according  to 
the  rules  of  the  unions,  be  done  by  the  same  men  who  do 
the  work.  Therefore  the  boilermakers  would  not  let  the 
fitters  make  the  test  ;  and  the  fitters  would  not  let  the 
boilermakers  make  the  test.  Matters  went  on  in  this  way 
for  some  weeks,  penalties  accumulating,  and  the  foreign 
Government  getting  more  and  more  irate,  for  they  wanted 
the  boilers  badly.  Messrs.  Thornycroft  therefore  made 
the  suggestion  that  both  sides  should  be  paid  for  doing 
the  work,  whilst  the  actual  test  should  be  made  by  clerks 
or  draughtsmen,  by  members  of  the  firm,  by  any  one  in 
fact,  for  the  operations  are  of  the  simplest  nature.  But 
this  also  could  not  be  agreed  to.  "  It  would,"  both  sides 
joined  in  saying — and  it  was  the  only  agreement  they 
came  to  throughout — "  be  putting  unqualified  men  on  to 
our  work."  So  this  comic  opera  dispute,  which  was  any- 
thing but  comic  to  the  firm,  went  on  for  over  two  months, 
until  the  contractors,  seeing  no  chance  of  a  solution  of 
the  problem,  ordered  one  party  to  make  the  test,  where- 
upon the  other  side  promptly  went  out  on  strike  for  a  few 
weeks.  Whether  the  boilermakers  now  fit  the  pipes 
together,  or  whether  the  pipe-fitters  fit  the  boiler  together, 
I  am  not  quite  sure,  but  I  think  the  boilermakers  won. 

Another  Gilbertian  instance  of  "  demarcation,"  which 
I  take  from  the  technical  journal  Engineering,  was  that 
which  occurred  between  the  shipwrights  and  the  ship- 
joiners.  Both  of  these  trades  have  a  union  of  their  own. 
They  both  work  in  wood  on  the  structure  of  a  ship,  each 
doing  planing,  sawing,  fitting,  and  other  operations  of  a 
similar  nature,  with  much  the  same  tools.  A  line  of 
demarcation  is  drawn  by  the  thickness  of  a  plank  or  board, 
so  that  the  difference  of  an  eighth  of  an  inch  may  deter- 


THE   LABOUR   QUESTION.  135 

mine  whether  Sam  the  shipwright  or  Jim  the  joiner  may 
claim  the  job.  On  one  occasion  a  board  had  to  be  dealt 
with  which  was  a  little  over  the  limiting  thickness  on  one 
edge  and  a  little  under  it  on  the  under.  It  is  disappoint- 
ing to  learn  that  so  pretty  a  case  for  argument  was  swept 
aside  by  an  unimaginative  employer,  who  said  he  did  not 
care  whether  it  was  a  shipwright's  board  or  a  shipjoiner's 
board,  but  if  some  one  did  not  look  sharp  and  plane  it  up 
he  would  discharge  both  sides  and  get  non-union  men.  It 
is  evident  the  shipwrights' and  shipjoiners'  unions  were  not 
so  strong  in  that  yard  as  the  engineers  and  boilermakers 
were  at  Messrs.  Thorny  croft's. 

No  doubt  the  two  cases  here  given  are  exceptional  in 
their  absurdity,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  loss,  annoy- 
ance, and  delay  caused  by  "  demarcation "  are  incal- 
culable. If  a  fitter  wants  a  board  removed  where 
it  is  necessary  to  take  out  a  couple  of  screws,  he 
must  send  for  a  carpenter  or  he  will  run  the  risk 
of  offending  the  union.  If  there  is  a  bit  of  lead  pipe 
to  deal  with  it  is  a  plumber's  job,  or,  if  any  part  of  the 
vessel's  structure,  he  must  send  for  a  plater  or  riveter,  and 
so  on  through  the  whole  gamut  of  trades.  Of  course  a 
good  deal  depends  on  the  character  of  the  management 
and  on  the  vigilance  of  the  "  shop  stewards,"  who  watch 
for  these  occurrences  on  behalf  of  the  unions,  although 

"  o 

receiving  pay  from  their  employers  ;  more  still  on  the 
foremen,  for  there  are  "  masters'  foremen  "  and  "  men's 
foremen  " — two  pregnant  phrases  that  in  themselves  tell 
an  ominous  tale. 

There  is  still  one  other  incident  which  I  will  quote 
before  leaving  this  very  instructive  journal  of  the  Amal- 
gamated Society  of  Engineers.  Two  men  employed  by 
Messrs.  Hornsby's,  the  well-known  makers  of  agricultural 
machinery,  had  been  dismissed,  one  for  wilfully  booking 
his  time  wrongly  and  the  other  for  not  attending  to  his 
work  and  for  using  abusive  language.  This  is  described 
in  the  journal  as  "  the  alleged  victimizing  of  two  of  our 
members,"  The  delegate  and  the  secretary  of  the  district 


136         AMERICAN  ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

accordingly  "  had  a  lengthy  interview  with  the  works 
manager,  during  which  he  proved  beyond  doubt  that  one 
member  ha'l  been  dismissed  for  wilfully  booking  his  time 
wrong  and  the  other  for  not  attending  to  his  work  and 

£}  «D 

using  abusive  language."  The  words  quoted  are  those 
used  by  the  delegate  in  the  official  report  of  the  society. 
The  managers  of  the  works  considered  that  the  member 
who  had  not  attended  to  his  work  and  had  used  abusive 
language  "  had  been  rather  harshly  dealt  with  "  ;  so  a 
"  compromise  "  was  agreed  to,  the  falsifier  of  accounts 
going,  and  the  other  being  reinstated  ;  "  we  deemed 
it  judicious,"  says  the  report,  "  not  to  press  our 
original  demand  or  allow  it  to  become  a  ca-su-8 
belli."  In  this  remarkable  exercise  of  moderation 
the  district  committee  concurred  ;  "  but  at  the 
aggregate  meeting  of  our  members  our  advice  was 
challenged  by  a  section  of  the  men,  who,  though  the 
member  concerned  admitted  he  had  systematically  and 
wilfully  booked  his  time  on  jobs  incorrectly,  clamoured  for 
his  reinstatement  or  a  strike."  I  am  not  sure  that  this 
last  instance  is  not  the  most  instructive  of  all.  Such 
cynical  contempt  for  the  elementary  rules  of  honesty  is 
not  often  equalled  in  print.  The  leaders  showed  a  better 
sense  of  decency,  and  they  prevailed,  for  there  was  no 
strike  ;  but  the  naive  manner  in  which  they  took  credit 
for  moderation  in  not  insisting  on  the  reinstatement  of  a 
falsifier  of  accounts,  and  for  the  forcing  of  a  user  of  abusive 
language  and  neglecter  of  work  on  the  employment  of  the 
firm,  is  instructive. 

One  result  of  the  engineering  strike  and  consequent 
cessation  of  work  was  to  show  how  remarkably  the  need 
for  the  services  of  society  men  had  been  over-estimated. 
By  means  of  picketing,  not  only  were  the  societies'  mem- 
bers kept  from  work,  but  the  majority  of  non-union  men 
as  well.  As  a  consequence  such  work  as  was  turned  out 
was  largely  done  by  apprentices,  labourers,  and  even  by 
clerks  or  draughtsmen.  Some  of  the  results  of  this  action 
were  collected,  and  a  few  of  them  were  published  in 


THE    LABOUR   QUESTION.  137 

Engineering  at  the  time  ;  but,  as  they  refer  so  closely  to 
this  question  of  American  competition,  I  will  repeat  one 
or  two  here. 

The  first  case  is  that  of  a  firm  which  had  before  the 
strike  been  compelled  by  the  Amalgamated  Society  of 
Engineers  to  hand  over  two  copying  lathes  to  two  turners, 
the  wages  of  each  being  35s.  per  week.  When  the  strike 
came  on,  a  labourer  was  put  in  charge  of  both  machines  at 
24s.  per  week,  and  he  turned  out  more  work  than  the  two 
society  men  together.  The  result,  it  will  be  seen,  was  a 
saving  of  46s.  per  week  and  a  larger  output. 

A  Manchester  firm,  after  the  strike,  began  to  put  on 
boys  to  turn  plain  forgings,  paying  los.  for  what  society 
men  charged  44s.  In  another  shop  work  that  cost  £57 
when  done  on  day  wages  cost  £4.8  in  piecework  ;  but,  if 
the  day  wage  rate  had  been  in  force  when  the  men  were 
working  on  the  piece,  and  they  had  turned  out  as  much 
work,  the  cost  then  would  have  been  but  £32,  thus  show- 
ing that  the  men,  when  on  time  wages,  slacked  to  the  ex- 
tent of  £25.  Another  firm  gave  the  cost  of  making 
certain  similar  machines  to  be  £3  6s.  6d.  in  1891  and 
£3  18s.  7d.  in  1896.  The  difference  would  not  be  sur- 
prising in  itself,  but  new  plant  had  been  installed  which 
should  have  reduced  the  cost  75  per  cent.  This  saving 
was  more  than  realized  when  the  strike  permitted  the  em- 
ployment of  unskilled  labour.  This  firm  says  that  just 
before  the  strike  they  had  almost  decided  to  give  up 
making  and  get  the  work  from  Germany  or  America. 

An  apprentice  was  "  interviewed "  because  he 
machined  three  stamp  millheads  a  day,  whilst  the  society 
men  did  but  two,  and  he  had  to  give  up  the  work.  Another 
firm  had  a  society  man  turning  pulleys  at  35s.  a  week, 
taking  26^  hours.  Afterwards,  at  the  same  lathe,  another 
man,  not  a  society  turner,  at  24s.  a  week  turned  out 
similar  pulleys  in  22^  hours.  Another  firm  found  it  took 
a  society  man  190  hours  to  plane  a  lathe  bed.  A  pro- 
moted labourer  under  a  non-union  foreman  did  the  work 
in  13,5  hours.  A  Glasgow  firm  gave  instances  of  saving 


138         AMERICAN    ENGINEERING    COMPETITION. 

in  time  on  machine  work  after  the  society  men  had  gone 
out  on  strike  and  apprentices  had  been  put  on.  In  one 
class  of  work  the  saving  was  50  per  cent.,  in  another  35 
per  cent.,  in  another  30  per  cent.,  in  another  50  per  cent., 
in  another  18  per  cent.,  in  another  10  per  cent.,  and  in 
another  17  per  cent.  In  another  shop  a  journeyman  and 
live  labourers  took  40  days  to  erect  three  cranes,  whilst  a 
pupil  and  the  same  five  labourers  erected  three  similar 
cranes  in  27  clays.  Another  firm  went  to  some  expense  in 
purchasing  machines  that  would  facilitate  work,  but  found 
110  advantage  until  the  regular  men  went  on  strike.  Then, 
with  inexperienced  labour,  they  saved  two  days  for  three 
hands  in  the  erection  of  each  machine.  In  another  case  a 
turner  had  set  a  piece  of  work  in  the  lathe  which  would  go 
on  automatically  for  some  time,  and  he  therefore  left  the 
machine  at  work  and  began  to  sharpen  his  tools.  The 
shop  steward  told  him  he  must  stop  either  his  lathe  or  the 
grinding  of  tools. 

Many  of  our  best  mechanics  go  to  America,  for  in  the 
United  States  they  find  no  restriction  put  upon  their 
energies.  Piecework  is  not  there  opposed  by  a  powerful 
union,  as  it  is  by  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Engineers. 
The  latter  fact  is  sometimes  denied,  so  I  will  quote  from 
the  rules  of  the  society. 

RULE  XXXIX. 

Piecework. 

1.  Any  member  asking  for  or  taking  work  by  contract  or 
piecework  in  any  firm  or  factory  where  piece  or  contract  work 
<loes  not  at  present  exist,  the  same  being  proved  to  the  satisfae- 
t  ion  of  the  district  committee,  shall  for  the  first  offence  be  fined 
20s.,  for  the  second  40s.,  and  for  the  third  be  expelled  from  tho 
society  ;  and  in  no  case  shall  piecework  be  engaged  in  in  any 
firm  or  factory  where  it  does  not  at  present  exist* 

In  face  of  this  rule  it  is  not  necessary  to  give  many  of 
the  instances  that  could  be  brought  forward  of  opposition 
to  piecework  on  the  part  of  the  unions. 

In  nearly  every  engineering  factory  I  visited  during 
my  recent  tour  in  the  United  States  I  found  the  system  of 
piecework  followed  to  the  fullest  extent  possible.  Its  effect 


THE   LABOUR    QUESTION.  139 

is  remarkable.  The  men  are  spurred  by  ambition  ;  they 
feel  the  reward  of  exertion.  The  more  they  make,  the 
more  they  want  to  make ;  and,  instead  of  being  checked 
by  popular  opinion,  or  the  feeling  of  the  shop  being 
against  hard  work,  the  best  worker  is  looked  on  with 
respect,  whilst  the  loafer  and  larrikin  finds  existence 
impossible- and  soon  drops  out  of  the  ranks  of  honest 
labour  to  his  natural  place  in  the  saloons  or  the  street. 

In  some  instances  day  wages  are  preferred  by  employers 
in  the  United  States,  not  often  by  the  men  ;  but  in  that 
case  the  greatest  care  is  taken  in  organizing  the  staff  of 
foremen.  They  are  given  no  clerical  work,  and  generally 
have  not  even  an  office,  only  a  desk  in  the  open  shop.  In 
this  way  the  foremen  are  kept  among  the  men  at  the  tools, 
going  from  one  to  another,  supervising,  advising,  and 
correcting.  The  American  foreman  is  never  a  **  men's 
foreman/'  He  is  responsible  to  the  employer  who  pays 
him.  He  feels  that  the  efficiency  of  the  shop  is  on  his 
shoulders,  and,  moreover,  if  he  does  not  get  a  good  result 
some  one  else  will  take  his  place.  Of  course,  there  is  no 
uniformity  of  payment  in  America  such  as  is  enforced  by 
trade-union  rules  here.  A  man  gets  just  what  he  is  worth, 
and  it  may  be  said  that,  if  he  is  not  worth  more  than  the 
generality  of  mechanics  receive  in  England  or  Scotland, 
he  is  hardly  considered  worth  keeping  at  all. 

Such  are  the  general  systems  of  workshop  manage- 
ment to  be  seen  in  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 
Let  any  one  compare  the  two  and  he  will,  I  think,  perceive 
how  impossible  it  is  for  this  country  to  compete  with 
America  in  engineering  manufactures  on  the  lines 
•sketched.  The  wonder  is  how  any  body  of  men  like  the 
British  engineering  employers  should  have  allowed  an 
irresponsible  and,  at  first,  comparatively  powerless  body, 
like  the  trade-union  executives,  so  completely  to  obtain 
the  upper  hand. 


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MAR 


6jan58KKX 


1350 


4— 


OST2Q 


LOAM  DfiPT, 


LD  21-100m-7,'39(402s) 

••••••B 


YC I 04746 


.-A  - 


v 


